As predicted, cases of COVID-19 are on the rise in school districts throughout the county, and superintendents continue to deal with the almost two-year-old pandemic as best they can.

Brian White, superintendent of the Butler Area School District, sent a letter to parents Friday reminding them to keep their students home if they display the symptoms of any illness.

He pointed to the health and wellness check tool available on the district's website, where parents can review symptoms and determine whether their child should attend school or remain at home.

White also told parents that instead of the item on the district website that lists the number of active COVID-19 cases, the district will switch next week to listing the number of new cases in each school.

He said 50 students were out with the virus on Friday.

Staff and faculty also are affected by the virus and absences are experienced in the classrooms and in all departments.

White has only been able to find enough substitute teachers to cover half of the teachers who are absent due to COVID-19, so teachers were pulled from other assignments to cover the absences.

Regarding students, White said the district is currently facing a challenge as a result of the new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention quarantine guidelines.

He said some students are notified that they have been exposed at school to a student who has tested positive on the third or fourth day of the positive student's symptoms, but with weekend days figured in some students have already surpassed the five-day quarantine period by the time they are contacted by school officials.

He said contact tracing and calling parents to notify them that their student was in close contact with a positive case takes an enormous amount of time from the daily schedules of principals and nurses.

“This really adds a lot of work to their daily existence,” White said.

He said some principals and nurses are calling parents in the evening because they ran out of time during the school day.

White said students who are out with a case of COVID-19 or in quarantine learn via a combination of livestreamed classes, digital lessons posted online, or teacher and third-party videos.

“I think we are all frustrated,” White said of the effects of the coronavirus pandemic. “We have to take a breath and not get frustrated with each other and try to work together.”

David Foley, superintendent at the South Butler County School District, said getting enough substitute teachers was a challenge even before the pandemic.

With teachers out with COVID-19 or in quarantine, finding enough substitute teachers is impossible.

“We've had to make accommodations where we've had to combine some different classes throughout the district,” Foley said. “The COVID situation has certainly made it more challenging to find quality people to come in and provide instruction.”

He said more contact tracing is necessary for secondary students because they change classes each day, while elementary students are mostly in the same room with the same teacher all day.

“I'm worried about the kids on the buses or in the cafeterias,” Foley said.

He said a very small percentage of South Butler students wear masks to school. Foley estimated that fewer than 10% of students wear masks.

South Butler has experienced 40 new positive cases since Tuesday.

Foley said at the Wednesday night school board meeting that he is concerned the threshold of cases could be met in one or more of the district's four schools, which means a school at or above the maximum allowable number of cases would close for a few days.

Students out with COVID-19 or who are in quarantine due to exposure can learn through livestreamed classes at South Butler.

Foley said the pandemic is sad, especially for the district's youngest students, because those in kindergarten or first or second grade know no other school life than that experienced during the pandemic.

“It's disheartening because we want our students to be in class with their teachers,” Foley said.

He also lamented the sports, band and academic trips, and other extracurricular activities affected during the pandemic.

“Our kids are missing out on things and that's unfortunate,” Foley said.

Like White, he is ready for the pandemic to be over.

“Every time you think you're getting closer to the end, something else happens,” Foley said.

Many school districts list COVID-19 information on their websites.

The state Department of Health listed 387 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Butler County in its daily report Friday.

The county has now had 25,476 confirmed positive cases of COVID since the beginning of the pandemic.