Schools roll back COVID mitigation measures
After Gov. Glenn Youngkin banned school mask mandates and loosened other K-12 COVID safety measures earlier this year, Charlottesville City Schools and Albemarle County Public Schools are scaling back their mitigation strategies for the 2022-23 school year.
Both school divisions are no longer enforcing social distancing, or contact tracing individual COVID cases—only COVID outbreaks, defined as three or more cases linked by a common exposure. Students and staff who have been exposed to COVID, but are not exhibiting symptoms, are not required to quarantine, in accordance with updated Centers for Disease Control guidelines.
In Charlottesville, students who test positive have to quarantine for five days, then, if their symptoms have resolved, wear a mask the next five days at school. Those who do not agree to mask up must quarantine for 10 days after testing positive. No negative test is needed to return to school. All staff are required to wear masks inside school facilities and on school buses, while full- and part-time staff have up to seven days of COVID leave.
In Albemarle, students and employees who test positive for COVID must quarantine for at least five days, and cannot return to school until their symptoms have improved, they have been fever free for 24 hours without medication, and they have received a negative test. After returning to work, employees are required to wear a mask for another five days. Staff who have been exposed to the virus (but do not have symptoms) are required to wear a mask for 10 days, but are not required to mask up on a daily basis. All employees no longer have COVID leave, due to “lower transmission risk levels in the county,” says ACPS spokesman Phil Giaramita. However, “many have access to a sick-leave bank, that adds to the days they can be out for illness and still be paid.”
The Albemarle Education Association has criticized ACPS for not providing COVID leave like CCS, and has called on the school board to change the policy. “The most affected groups will be employees likely to have a low sick leave balance. … Employees will feel financially pressured into avoiding testing or returning to work quickly after a positive test,” read a statement the AEA issued last week.
Evictions on the rise
Virginia’s eviction protections ended in July, and evictions have been on the rise in the Charlottesville area, particularly at Abbington Crossing Apartments in Albemarle County. Since July 1, the apartment complex has filed over 70 unlawful detainers against residents. Last Thursday, more than 80 eviction hearings initiated by the complex—including cases continued from earlier this year—were held at Albemarle County General District Court, according to court records.
Some residents claim they applied to the Virginia Rent Relief Program before applications closed in May. However, Abbington Crossing never completed the landlord’s section of the application, preventing tenants from receiving any financial assistance, says the Charlottesville Democratic Socialists of America’s Housing Justice Committee, which has visited the complex to inform residents of their legal rights.
“People would think that they were fine, and that they’ve done everything [the application] asks them to do … and then they’re still going to court over nonpayment [of rent], because their landlord is alleging that they never got that money,” explains committee co-chair Victoria McCullough.
Abbington Crossing could not be reached for comment.
The housing activists encourage all tenants facing eviction in the Charlottesville area to go to their court date and contact the LAJC, Financial Opportunity Center + Housing Hub, Central Virginia Legal Aid Society, Monticello Area Community Action Agency, or the Pathways Fund (833-524-2904) for assistance.
In brief
Review delayed
The Virginia Board of Education has delayed public hearings for Virginia’s new history and social science standards review to fix what Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s administration has called “serious errors and omissions,” including the accidental removal of a reference to George Washington as “The Father of Our Country” and James Madison as “The Father of Our Constitution.” State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jillian Balow is now working with the Fordham Institute, a conservative education think tank, to review the proposed standards, which were developed with input from historians, educators, students, parents, and representatives from historically marginalized groups for over two years. State Democrats have argued the errors could be addressed internally by education department staff. Public hearings will now begin in September.
Cool down
For the first time in history, every University of Virginia student living on the Lawn now has access to air conditioning. While AC units were previously only allowed in Lawn rooms for medical reasons, the university installed portable air conditioners in all 107 rooms this summer, after over a year of planning, reports NBC29.
Abortion restricted
A federal judge reinstated North Carolina’s unenforced ban on abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy last week, lifting an injunction he had placed on the law in 2019. People seeking abortions after 20 weeks—often due to medical issues, like a lethal fetal anomaly—are now expected to travel to Virginia, where there is currently no ban on abortions. Gov. Glenn Youngkin is working to ban most abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy.
Updated 8/24 to clarify Charlottesville City Schools’ COVID policy