News

Following two consecutive weeks of testing, the Edward Abraham Nursing Home is now reporting 10 positive cases of COVID-19—which includes six residents and four staff members.

Fifty-five tests conducted at the nursing home on staff and residents were negative. Between last week’s report and this week’s, the overall positive case count in Hemphill County rose from 48 to 54, and in other counties, from 29 to 31. The Hemphill County residents are on home isolation.

Following school board debate over extracurricular participation for at-home students, vote to exclude fails Two days before the official start of the 2020-21 school year, the Canadian ISD board of trustees was still deadlocked in the debate over whether or not those students who opt for virtual learning at home should be allowed to participate in extracurricular activities. The board had debated the issue at length already in its last meeting on Aug.

Last week, the U.S. Census Bureau began following up with households nationwide that have not yet responded to the 2020 census. Based on the current Hemphill County self-response rate, the Census Bureau estimates it will need to visit about 1,230 homes in Hemphill County to collect responses in person.

Students across Texas returned to campuses last week as schools and universities scrambled to put into place new lesson plans that best accommodate a pandemic. For many school districts, this meant greatly expanding the technological resources of their students to support a mix of in-person and online education. For example, Goose Creek Consolidated Independent School District east of Houston announced plans to buy 16,000 iPads for almost $3.1 million. The Texas Education Agency’s statewide initiative, Operation Connectivity, will pay half the cost. Gov. Greg Abbott also announced the TEA had obtained more than 1 million personal devices and internet WiFi hotspots as part of the initiative. The effort is financed by a previously announced $200 million allocation of Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act funding to the TEA and matched by school districts. It will ensure that students attending a Texas public school will have both a device and connection to the internet throughout the school year and beyond, Abbott said. In other tech-related news last week, Apple became the first U.S. company to be valued at $2 trillion.

Having finally sealed a deal on the purchase of the former Digital Abstract building to house its offices, the water district is trying to prepare a budget for the next fiscal year in the face of a 23 percent decline in property values.

“What a fun puzzle this has been,” Superintendent Lynn Pulliam said, as his trustees—who obviously knew better—began to navigate the real landmines tucked about ankle-deep in last Tuesday evening’s school board agenda.

After learning last week that two Abraham Home employees had tested COVID-positive, the Hemphill County Hospital District is reporting this week that a total of five coronavirus tests of staff and residents at the nursing home have now been confirmed positive. Two of those positive cases are residents, and three others are employees—one from Hemphill and two from another county.