The Liberty County School system on Friday announced all after school activities have been canceled until further notice, to include all spring sports contests as a result of concerns of the spread of COVID-19.
The system's students started a three-day break from classes today and are due to return March 18, but announced Thursday it will notify students on Tuesday if schools remain closed beyond the break.
Long County Schools are also on a break through monitoring the situation, according to its website, but has not announced whether sports have been canceled.
In a statement from Superintendent David Edwards on the system website, the system said its students are on holiday Monday and Tuesday.
Yesterday afternoon , Governor Brian Kemp along with other state leaders held a press conference to provide the public with an update regarding COVID-19. After this public address, the governor and various officials including representatives from the Georgia Department of Education conducted a phone conference with school superintendents across the state. During this conference, the governor issued a Call to Action to consider closing schools beginning as early as today and extending through 2 weeks to prevent the possible spread of COVID-19 across the state.
As you are aware, LCSS is out on Spring Holidays today and Monday. Our Custodial staff is working hard to disinfect and do some deep cleaning in our buildings during this two day break. In addition, Long County School System has implemented numerous measures to promote sanitary conditions and help prevent the spread of illness to students in the system.
The Superintendent and Long County Board of Education, along with district administrators are reviewing available information and updates regarding the virus and are working to make decisions regarding school closures based on this information. We will keep you posted and provide additional updates as soon as possible. As always, Long County School System is committed to promoting the health and safety of all students and staff members in the district
The Georgia High School Association on Thursday urged schools to suspend springs sports until further notice. Effingham County Schools has put its after school activities on hold as well, and other districts may follow suit.
Following a statement by Governor Brian Kemp Thursday afternoon, the Georgia High School Association is postponing the State Literary competitions scheduled for March 14 and March 21, and further recommending that all member schools suspend spring sports activities until further notice.
“The regular season belongs to the schools themselves,“ said Dr. Robin Hines, Executive Director of the GHSA. “We can only recommend that they suspend playing. The final decision will rest with the local school systems, but we hope they heed the Governor’s and the GHSA’s recommendations.”
The GHSA State Literary meets are expected to be made up at a future date. The situation with the remaining spring sports is yet to be determined.
“We will definitely suspend for the next two weeks, as the Governor recommended,” said Hines. “By close of business on Friday, March 27th, we will issue an update.
“We hate to have to make this call, but we must do what is in the best interest of our student-athletes and fans.”