Durling Middle School closes due to staff quarantines

Durling Middle School will be closed for the remainder of this week due to novel coronavirus cases, related quarantines and a lack of substitutes to fill the gap.

Students will be virtually learning from home through Nov. 20.

Clearview Local Schools Superintendent Jerome Davis said during a Nov. 16 school board meeting that the school had also been closed Nov. 12 and 13 due to a lack of substitutes.

On Nov. 13, the school logged five positive cases and 14 quarantined cases, according to the district website’s COVID-19 dashboard.

“We thought Monday (Nov. 16) would be better, and it wasn’t,” Davis said.

At the end of last week, Clearview High School also had three positive and 44 quarantined cases, Vincent Elementary School had five quarantined cases and the district board office had one positive and one quarantined case.

Davis said the district has less than half the substitutes to fill all its teaching positions at the school.

“We are having substitute issues in all three buildings,” he said. “We just happen to have a lot of people out at Durling, which made a big difference for that school.”

Even by the end of the week on Nov. 20, Davis said there could still be up to 12 staff members that will be under quarantine.

He said some of the current staff members who are quarantined are positive cases, but a lot of others are those who are at risk of carrying COVID-19.

Davis said those at risk were around a positive case of the virus for more than 15 minutes in a close space, as per Lorain County Public Health guidelines.

He added that these cases are not necessarily spread through going to school, and is more likely that staff or students are picking up the virus elsewhere and can’t attend school as a result.

Additionally, board members passed two resolutions for sanitation-related items for the schools: air sterilization units of over $146,000 and 36 ionization univent installations, 17 for the high school and 19 for the middle school, for over $46,000.

“We are having substitute issues in all three buildings. We just happen to have a lot of people out at Durling, which made a big difference for that school.” — Clearview Schools Superintendent Jerome Davis

Davis