Madison schools delay start

Madison schools delay start

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The Madison County School District has pushed back its opening date from early August to Sept. 3, district officials announced Wednesday. 

“At this time, the plan is for students choosing to return to campus to alternate in-class instruction with distance learning on September 3-4 and 8-11, with a full return for all on-campus students on September 14,” Superintendent Charlotte Seals announced. 

Seals said the decision came after consulting with state and local health experts. 

Extracurricular activities will continue with proper social distancing guidelines in effect. 

“Shifting the start of school will cause some changes to the school calendar,” Seals added. “As changes are confirmed, we will share that information with you.”

On Monday, county supervisors passed an order declaring the circuit courtrooms incapable of accommodating the jury qualification process due to social distancing guidelines following a request from Circuit Judge John Emfinger. 

“We cannot safely social distance,” Emfinger told supervisors. 

Supervisors approved using the Canton Multipurpose Complex for the jury selection process, which can hold upwards of 70 people at the proper social distancing requirements. 

Emfinger said the actual trials will take place in the court rooms. 

Supervisors also approved to spend nearly $5,000 on plexiglass for the courtrooms and tentatively pay $24,000 to have the jury box reconfigured in the event it’s necessary to social distance. 

Emfinger said he has two capital murder trials upcoming in September and it would take weeks just to select a jury without the change. 

Madison County is among 23 total counties in the state went under a mandatory mask order enacted by Gov. Tate Reeves last week. 

Reeves has repeatedly said there were no plans for a statewide mask mandate at this time, instead saying buy-in at the local level has proven successful in the past.

On Wednesday, 1,547 new cases and 34 new deaths were reported in the state. Tuesday the state measured its highest case count over 1,600.

A new public health order that went into effect two weeks ago also limits elective procedures in hospitals in six counties — Hinds, Madison, Rankin, Jones, Forrest and Washington.

Madison County is third in the state with a total number of 1,852 cases, behind Hinds and De Soto. The total cases here has risen over 250 within the last week.

The state’s death rate, hospitalizations, ICU cases and ventilator usage has risen following a decline in early-June.

As of Wednesday, Madison reported reported 407 deaths, up seven from last week. There were also 152 outbreaks in long-term care facilities, with 22 of those resulting in death. 

The Mississippi Department of Health reported on Wednesday 942 current hospitalizations of COVID patients, up from 536 on June 24. There were another 223 patients with suspected infection. There were 293 people admitted in ICUs across the state and 138 who were on ventilators. 

Reeves on a press conference Wednesday said the state has seen a 55 percent increase in hospitalizations since July 1.

“When we had 1,500 cases in a week we thought it was bad,” he said. “We had over 1,500 cases today, after having over 1,500 cases yesterday.”

Reeves said he was going to continue to sound the alarm but there isn’t an executive order he could implement if the people of Mississippi don’t start practicing better healthy processes such as social distancing and wearing a mask. 

“Our hospital system is stretched the the point of pain,” he said. “We can slow the spread of the virus — make no mistake.”






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