Although COVID-19 cases in Llano County have been on a downward trend after a spike in cases in July, one local high school student tested positive late last month.
As of Sept. 18, the county has logged 166 positive cases, five of which have resulted in death. The most recent death was a man in his 60s from Llano.
The student’s case was reported to Llano County Health District officials on Aug. 19 and his status is listed as recovered, according to county statistics.
“We’ve had one positive case, but we followed the established protocols and worked our way through it,” said Llano High School Principal Scott Patrick. “The student is fine.”
No other school-related cases have been reported as of Sept. 18.
Back to the classroom
The on-campus population has increased since the new school year for Llano Independent School District began just over a month ago, on Aug. 13. Following guidance from the Texas Education Agency, parents could choose whether they wanted their child to learn on campus or remotely.
The percentage of students across all campuses who were in the classroom at the beginning of the year was 84 percent; as of Sept. 18, 89 percent of Llano students were learning in person.
Packsaddle Elementary has followed that district-wide trend, according to Principal Lendy Oldaker. At the beginning of the school year, 80 percent of the school’s enrollment was on-campus; now, it is almost 90 percent.
“I think that (learning remotely) is harder now than it was in the spring because we’re trying to make it as much like the classroom as we can,” Oldaker said. “I also think that parents were scared, which is understandable, and some parents wanted to wait and see how on-campus learning was going before they let their child return to the classroom.”
The high school has had less of a fluctuation in the remote learning population.
“Right now, we’re pretty much right where we started with 86-87 percent of students attending school face-to-face,” he said.
Oldaker said that around 20 kids have been tested for COVID-19 but no positive cases have resulted.
The principal said she is happy with the way on-campus learning is going, but remote learning still presents a challenge.
“We have some excellent remote parents, but teachers are struggling to get work turned in from some students,” Oldaker said. “We’re working really hard with those families.”
She said that, overall, it is a challenging school year because students missed several months of in-classroom learning due to the shutdown.
“Teachers are trying to catch students up on material they missed in the spring while teaching what they’re supposed to know now,” Oldaker said. “It’s put some pressure on staff members.”
School employees have adapted to a new and different workload.
“It’s definitely a team effort,” she said. “Our paraprofessionals and administration team are helping teachers.”
Oldaker said that students are wearing their masks and keeping their distance from each other, although younger students have had to adapt to this concept of “social distancing.”
Children are separated into “pods,” so that contact tracing would be easier if a positive case occurs.
“Overall, they do better with this than we do,” she said. “For pre-kindergarten and kindergartners, each pod has their special color and they stay with those same kids at lunch, PE and recess.”
Oldaker said that most parents she has spoken with are thankful for the opportunity for their kids to return to school.
“We’ve had a few parents who are upset about the mask policy, but it’s a policy that we have to follow to keep everyone safe and healthy,” Oldaker said. “I’m thankful for parents for allowing us to educate their kids, because we’re grateful to be back open and be able to do the job that we love. We’ll always take any prayers that people would like to offer.”
