With just a few weeks left in the 2021-22 school year, COVID-19 cases among Madison Metropolitan School District students and staff continue to rise.
The district had 339 cases reported the week of May 9, according to its public case count, up from 315 the week prior. The two weeks are the only time outside of the Omicron surge that the weekly total was above 200.
Since Aug. 18, the district has now totaled 6,461 cases among its students and staff. There are more than 25,000 students and 5,000 staff members in MMSD.
After the early 2022 Omicron surge subsided, March featured three weeks in a row with cases at 40, 41 and 41. The uptick began slowly from there with 80 cases the week of March 21 and a drop the week of March 28, though that is likely attributable to spring break and less reporting.
The week after spring break, the total jumped to 101 and has continued to rise from there, reaching 149, 189 and 194 before making a large rise to 315 last week.
Nine of the district’s 51 school sites reported double-digit cases over the past week.
At the elementary level, Olson had the most with 11, while both Randall and Stephens had 10. Among middle schools, both Hamilton and Toki reported 13 cases, while all others were in the single digits.
The four large high schools were the highest in the district, led by 45 cases at Memorial. West reported 23, La Follette 22 and East 15 for the week of May 9.
In the last extension of its indoor mask mandate, announced May 6, the district said it would reevaluate the practice on a biweekly basis, meaning another announcement is likely to come this Friday.
MMSD’s considerations in extending the mandate, according to that announcement, included its primary goal to keep schools open for in-person learning, the “current and sustained increase in positive COVID-19 cases locally,” a unanimous recommendation from district medical advisers and concerns over staffing levels if cases continue to rise.
