Hernando High School to go virtual

A DeSoto County school is going to go virtual, due to a growing number of coronavirus cases.

DeSoto County Schools (DCS) informed Hernando High School parents that, “due to the number of COVID cases in recent days among students, Hernando High School will begin virtual learning tomorrow morning (Tuesday 8/17).”

The email to Hernando High School parents said virtual learning would continue through at least Aug. 27. Parents are to receive another communication that day about the status of virtual learning and what will happen after that day.  

Specific plans for virtual learning were emailed later Monday by Hernando High School administrators.  In that email, parents learned that school administrators would be evaluating cases to determine if students could return to school before Aug. 27, or if virtual learning would be extended.

Supt. Cory Uselton said in deciding that Hernando High needed to go virtual, “the main factor was actually a cluster of cases (or potential outbreaks).”

Uselton added there were more cases reported to the school Monday that were not part of the weekly case report, released Monday afternoon.  

Hernando High School will not be taking part in any extracurricular activities during the period of time the campus is in virtual learning, and according to the Mississippi High School Activities Association, any contests that were scheduled to be played become forfeits in favor of the opposing team.

That means Hernando football will not be participating in their scheduled jamboree with Lake Cormorant on Friday, Aug. 20. If the virtual learning period would continue, the Aug. 27 football game with Rosa Fort (Tunica) would be in jeopardy, although at this time, only this week’s activities have been canceled, school officials said.

DCS released the weekly case and quarantine numbers for the school week ending Friday, Aug. 13, and Hernando High led the district with 29 new COVID-19 cases in the school setting, or 2.0 percent of the student population. Hernando High also had 57 new student quarantines as the result of a close contact with someone in school.  

DeSoto Central Primary School was next on the new case list with 20 new cases through Friday and 63 new student quarantines. 

Hernando Middle School reported 15 new cases and 54 new quarantines in the past school week. No other DCS school reported more than 10 new cases, although Horn Lake High School had nine.

As a district, there were 189 new coronavirus cases and 554 new quarantines in the past week. Thirty-four teachers and school staff had a positive COVID-19 test between Aug. 9-13.  

The weekly report is found on the DeSoto County Schools website.