Vermillion County schools make adjustments following surge of COVID-19 cases in the community

Schools in Vermillion County are making adjustments.

Local officials say this is a result of a surge of COVID-19 cases in the county.

Good evening and thanks for joining us.

I'm patrece dayton..

And i'm rondrell moore.

Local and two-state officials are looking closely at surges of "new" covid-19 cases.

Now, "some" areas are adjusting school plans.

News 10's dominic miranda has been following what's happening in "vermillion county".

He brings us the latest the vermillion county health department alerted county schools that the county would be moving to a "red" county on wednesday.

This is because vermillion county had what they called "a major uptick in cases over the past month."

Since october 6th...the county has seen 45 new cases....causing the health department to recommend both school districts move to e-learning.

South vermillion schools will be doing just that.

I reached out to superintendent dave chapman...and he sent a statement that reads in part: "after consultation with the vermillion county health department, it has been determined that beginning wednesday, october 21, 2020, all svcs schools will move to e-learning status due to the supstantial spread of the coronavirus in our community.

Svcs will move to the "red" stage of our re-entry plan through tuesday, october 27, 2020, unless it is deemed necessary to remain at that level."

I also spoke with north vermillion superintendent dan nelson.

He says there is no correlation between the community numbers and what's happening in north vermillion schools.

Nelson says there are very few cases and zero evidence of spread within the school corporation.

North vermillion schools *will not* be moving to e-learning following this news.

Nelson says the school has done an excellent job enforcing their protocols...and being in school provides the best education for students.

But they will pay close attention to the covid-19 status in the county.

"we will continue to monitor the county.

We'll continue to monitor the school.

If we see a spike in numbers in the school or in the county, we will look to re-evaluate.

But that evaluation may not be going e-learning.

It may be a hybrid model.

We are going to do everything we can do to keep kids in school."

Superintendent nelson says they do have a virtual option students can do as well... but for now... they feel comfortable continuing in-person schooling business as usual.

In the newsroom i'm dominic miranda news 10