More than a dozen Delaware public schools, mostly in New Castle County, are operating at less than 60% capacity, according to data from . 

Five of those are more than half empty.

The phenomenon of half-empty school buildings has prompted Delaware鈥檚 House Speaker Mimi Minor Brown (D-New Castle) to question whether they 鈥� or other underutilized government facilities 鈥� could be repurposed into different types of community facilities. 

Last week, Minor-Brown introduced  that asks budget officials to develop a framework, along with school districts, that would define an 鈥渦nderutilized鈥� property. They would then outline a process for repurposing it for other community services, such as child care or senior housing. 

In a  earlier this month, Minor-Brown said her resolution would not close any school or take power from local school board members. Instead, she said it starts a 鈥渃oordinated planning conversation.鈥�

The resolution, which awaits consideration in the Senate after passing the House, comes as enrollment in several schools in New Castle County has dwindled even it has surged in some southern Delaware districts.

The phenomenon has been fueled by several factors, including an expansion of charter schools in New Castle County and changes to bus patterns that allow students to attend schools outside of their community.

Among the hardest hit schools are Alexis I. duPont High School in the Red Clay Consolidated School District, which is 53% occupied, and the Colonial School District鈥檚 Castle Hills Elementary School, which is 48% occupied. 

Minor-Brown鈥檚 resolution also comes as Delaware officials work to reform how the state funds individual schools 鈥� moving its funding formula away from one primarily reflects enrollment sizes.  

Empty seats raise questions

While Minor-Brown calls on officials to use enrollment data as a factor in determining underused properties, some school officials say occupancy rates may not actually reflect how much a school is actually being used.

Colonial School District Superintendent Jeff Menzer said capacity numbers are not 鈥渃ut and dry,鈥� because some students need more space than others depending on their individual needs.

One classroom could be designed for 25 students, with one teacher and one paraprofessional. But if five students within the class are struggling with reading, there may be a need for more space to provide tutoring, Menzer said.

As a result, Menzer said some schools that have lower recorded enrollments than others are still overcrowded because of some students鈥� needs for more inclusive settings.

鈥淵ou can鈥檛 necessarily trust that [capacity] number 100%,鈥� he said.

While Minor-Brown鈥檚 proposal also does not define what would qualify as underutilized, one school administrator said officials should take note when certain high schools enroll less than 800 students. 

In an email, Red Clay Director of Secondary Education Mark Pruitt said officials should hold early conversations when a high school that offers academic and career technical programs has an enrollment below 800 students. 

Those early conversations should involve what Pruitt called 鈥渟ustainable programming,鈥� and the staffing needed to support that programming. 

What comes next?

Minor-Brown鈥檚 resolution follows years of questions surrounding what could happen to schools with lower capacities. It also follows a multi-year study into the best way to oversee schools in Wilmington, Delaware鈥檚 largest city.

Last year, a state committee tasked with reworking school district boundaries  the four school districts serving Wilmington. That recommendation  whether it would result in the closure of high schools in the Wilmington area. 

Redding Consortium co-chair State Sen. Elizabeth 鈥淭izzy鈥� Lockman (D-Wilmington)  that low school enrollment is something that 鈥渃an and will be taken in consideration as part of the planning.鈥� 

Questions about how to use school buildings have also surfaced in the Red Clay Consolidated School District, where Alexis I. duPont High School has experienced a steep enrollment decline over the past 14 years and is now the state鈥檚 smallest traditional high school by enrollment.

Community members have pointed to several possible reasons for the decline, including changes to school-choice transportation, limits on choice admissions and growing competition from charter and private schools.

In response, district leaders have explored ways to increase enrollment at the school.

Earlier this spring, the district鈥檚 school board attempted to transform McKean High School into an 鈥渋nnovation campus.鈥� 

If passed, the measure to create McKean innovation center , reducing the number of traditional high schools in the district from three to two, and increasing enrollment numbers at A.I. duPont High School and at The John Dickinson School. 

The plan would also have moved the district鈥檚 Meadowood program for students with intellectual or developmental disabilities from McKean to A.I. duPont.

But the plan drew months of opposition from parents who said the Meadowood program had become overlooked in discussions about enrollment and school planning.

 said Meadowood helps their children work on social skills, such as conversation starters, and learn how to do tasks like washing dishes.

Following the public backlash, the Red Clay school board voted in April to postpone the proposal.

Watch a full replay from the hearing:聽

Lightfoot compared the situation to the movie 鈥淕roundhog Day,鈥� insisting 鈥渢here is no basis in the data, the science, or common sense for us to shut an entire system down when we can surgically do this at a school level.鈥�

Martinez emphasized the district鈥檚 empowerment of school principals: 鈥淭here is no evidence [that schools aren鈥檛 safe]. Now, what is real is cases are rising and we have said, the best solution is to do it at the school level. Our principles are empowered, our teachers are empowered, they have safety committees, we have invested in the filtration systems鈥︹��

CTU spokesman Chris Geovanis said that while some schools implement all COVID mitigation strategies, not all do.

Geovanis said the union doesn鈥檛 hold Martinez responsible for the lack of agreement and instead faults Lightfoot, who has control over the school district. 鈥淚t says nothing about Pedro. He鈥檚 not the boss,鈥� 鈥嬧�婫eovanis said, accusing the mayor of wanting to appease parents in wealthier parts of the city, saying she鈥檚 siding with 鈥渢he business class who relies on CPS for free child care.鈥�

Shortly after the press conference CTU voted to halt in-person instruction, and classes were immediately canceled on Wednesday as a result. Read Linda Jacobson鈥檚 full report on the reactions to the Tuesday evening vote.

Even before the World Health Organization labeled the Omicron coronavirus strain a new 鈥渧ariant of concern鈥� Friday, school closures were continuing to increase across the country. 

Last week, 621 schools across 58 districts announced new closures for a variety of reasons including teacher burnout, staffing shortages and virus outbreaks, according to counts from Burbio, a data service that has tracked school policy through the pandemic. Since the start of the academic year, nationwide have added extra days off.

The numbers suggest that nearly 10 percent of the nation鈥檚 roughly 98,000 K-12 schools have experienced closures this year. In Maryland, more than 3 in 10 schools have been affected by at least one day of disruption this academic year. In North Carolina, where such events have been most frequent, the number is above 4 in 10.

Now, schools already struggling to keep classrooms open could face further challenges should the recently identified Omicron variant, which has already , fuel a COVID surge this winter. 

鈥淭his is only going to make matters worse,鈥� Dan Domenech, executive director of the School Superintendents Association, told 社区黑料. 鈥淲e already see that most districts are short-handed.鈥�

Earlier in November, lack of substitute teachers forced multiple large school systems to announce unplanned closures as teachers took additional time off around Veterans Day and Thanksgiving.

Shutting down is a last-resort option that schools should seek to avoid, said Domenech. But sometimes it鈥檚 school leaders鈥� only viable choice, he said.

鈥淚f they have a staff that’s on the verge of burnout and they keep pushing them, they’re only going to lose more staff. And that’s going to result in more closures and fewer kids being in person.鈥�

Now, with K-12 staff stretched thin in districts across the country, health experts are scrambling to understand the threat posed by the new variant, which Moderna鈥檚 President Dr. Stephen Hoge described as having a 鈥溾�� of mutations. 

In South Africa, where Omicron was first identified Nov. 24, the strain has contributed to a sharp spike in cases, leading doctors to believe that it is more transmissible than previous versions of the virus. But whether those cases are more severe, and exactly how much protection is delivered by the vaccines, remains unclear. 

The South African doctor who first discovered the variant told the BBC on Sunday that symptoms have generally been 鈥�.鈥� But other experts point out that these initial observations are only based on a very small sample size.

鈥淭his variant is a cause for concern, not a cause for panic,鈥� said President Joe Biden in an address to the nation Monday morning.

Health experts, the president said, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, believe that existing COVID vaccines will continue to provide a degree of protection against the new strain, especially for individuals who have upped their immunity through booster shots. But it will be before scientists gain more precise results on just how effectively antibodies built up through vaccination neutralize the Omicron variant, Dr. Kavita Patel, a nonresident fellow at the Brookings Institution, told CNBC on Monday. Still, there鈥檚 reason to be hopeful, she said.

鈥淭he current vaccines don鈥檛 just generate the variant-specific antibodies. They try to generate kind of a broad antibody response,鈥� said the Washington, D.C.-based physician.

Because of the Omicron variant, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Monday on booster doses to recommend that all adults 鈥渟hould,鈥� rather than 鈥渕ay,鈥� receive a third shot six months after their second. Meanwhile, The Washington Post reported Monday evening that Pfizer-BioNTech plans to for 16- and 17-year olds, after initial booster data out of Israel showed positive results within that age group.

While the details of the new variant come into focus, Atlanta-based pediatrician Jennifer Shu said K-12 buildings need to keep their guard up to stave off in-school transmission.

鈥淚t鈥檚 important for schools to continue protective measures such as masking, hand washing, physical distancing when possible, disinfecting, optimizing ventilation, etc. to limit the spread of COVID-19,鈥� the doctor wrote in an email to 社区黑料.

At this point, Domenech said he is not aware of any school leaders within his network having changed their safety procedures in response to the emergence of the Omicron variant.

Over the course of this school year, many districts have moved to introduce 鈥�test-to-stay鈥� measures that allow students potentially exposed to the virus to skip quarantine, provided they test negative for COVID on a rapid test. The WHO confirmed Sunday that existing PCR tests do accurately detect infection from the Omicron variant, but studies are ongoing to determine the effectiveness at recognizing the new strain employed in most test-to-stay schemes.

Since September, there have been over , and in the week before Thanksgiving, children accounted for about a quarter of new infections, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics. Weekly youth cases are on the rise, up 32 percent as of Nov. 18 over the previous week to 142,000, but they are well below their peak in early September of 252,000.

Over 19 million youth have received at least one vaccine dose, President Biden said in his Monday address. Over 99 percent of schools nationwide are now open for in-person learning, he pointed out, compared to less than half this time last year.

The new strain further underscores the importance of continuing efforts to boost vaccination rates within school communities, said Domenech, and raises the stakes for immunizing newly eligible children.

鈥淭he bottom line here is that unless we get to the point where the majority of people are vaccinated, where we can get to that herd immunity point, these variants are going to keep coming [and] kids are going to get infected,鈥� he said.

Correction: Last week, 621 schools across 58 districts announced new closures for a variety of reasons. An earlier version of the story incorrectly reported that 9,313 campuses across 916 districts had announced closures last week. Those numbers represent the total closures since the start of the academic year.