Knox County Schools has a plan for vaccinating teachers, which could help keep schools open

This summer, Knox County Schools superintendent Bob Thomas told community members he was "praying for a vaccine." Now getting teachers vaccinated is one thing Thomas is counting on as he tries to keep schools open for the spring semester. 

As students at Shannondale Elementary were dropped off Tuesday morning, the first day back after the winter break, Thomas said the district is working on a plan to vaccinate teachers when doses become available.

"We continue to work with our health department, and as soon as (the vaccines) are made available, we’ll have a plan in place for our nurses to administer the vaccine to all of those employees who wish to be vaccinated," Thomas said. 

He said he is hopeful there will be "ample doses" in the next few weeks.

About 43 out of the 83 school nurses have already been vaccinated, KCS health services supervisor Lisa Wagoner told Knox News on Tuesday. 

The district is facing an uphill battle, even as it kept most schools open throughout the fall. COVID-19 cases, deaths and hospitalizations reached peak levels this winter in Knox County.

All students learned virtually the final week of the semester after the district struggled to find enough substitutes to fill vacancies. 

ore:Tennessee teachers move up on the COVID-19 vaccine priority list

The subject of vaccines came up again later in the morning when Thomas answered a Gresham Middle School student's question about whether schools would close again. Thomas said he didn't know if schools will have to switch to a virtual setting but he hopes the vaccine will help the community eventually reach a sense of normalcy without masks and social distancing.

Another good sign is this: Thomas said more substitutes are working now than in previous weeks. Thirty-five substitute teachers have been hired since beginning of December.

But Knox County Health Department Director Dr. Martha Buchanan said she is worried the district will soon have to return to virtual learning because of substitute teacher shortages.

"We totally understand the importance of children being in school and being educated at school. We get that," Buchanan said at a media briefing Tuesday afternoon. "And the schools had the difficult job of weighing the risk of illness versus having kids in school. And they made the decision to have kids go back to school right now and we'll continue to work with them on how to reduce risk in the schools and support that decision but I am concerned that we will be back where we were before before the holidays and having to not have school in-person again in the near future." 

Buchanan she is concerned about extracurriculars and how they can lead to COVID-19 spread. District spokeswoman Carly Harrington said Tuesday morning the district is not planning to stop extracurriculars. 

Buchanan said she isn't sure if delaying the start of in-person learning would have made a difference since the "disease rate right now for the foreseeable future will continue to be high." 

Same old 'new normal' 

Students had the same choices as last semester: in-person learning with extra safety measures or a full-time virtual option. But COVID-19 cases and the necessary isolations and quarantines mean some students will inevitably learn from home sometime this semester.

He said having a semester under the district's belt means the virtual experience will continue to improve for students who have to temporarily learn from home.

All together, there are 45,884 students doing in-person learning and 13,064 students learning virtually, according to numbers provided by the district in November. 

More:See how many additional in-person students your child's school will have this spring

About 12.8% of district students took the opportunity to change their learning model. Of those students, 6,366 students are moving from virtual to in-person learning and 1,225 students are switching from the classroom to virtual learning at home.

That means that for some students, Tuesday was their first day back in a physical classroom since mid-March, when the district shut down due to concerns about the COVID-19 pandemic.

While the learning options may be the same, Knox County's situation has changed. 

Knox County set two COVID-19 records on Tuesday, with the highest number of deaths and hospitalizations reported in a single day since the pandemic began. 

It's likely that holiday travel and indoor gatherings will contribute to a spike in cases in the coming weeks, like the spike seen after Thanksgiving.

There are 146 active cases of COVID-19 across the district on Tuesday, according to the COVID-19 dashboard  There are 643 people in isolation or quarantine.

More:Knox County Schools students are returning to classrooms, but COVID-19 looms large

"We will continue to do the safety checks that we’ve done, and the sanitization of high-touch areas," Thomas said Tuesday morning. "We’ll continue to check temperatures, as you’ve seen. Also wearing masks. We want to provide a safe environment for in-person students, and we’ll continue to do what we did last semester."

This is a developing story, check back for updates.

Reporter Monica Kast contributed to this story.