Fulton County Schools will not participate in athletic competitions with other schools until the middle of September at the earliest, Superintendent Mike Looney announced during the Board of Education’s Aug. 13 meeting.
He shared his continuing concern about athletic sporting events outside of the conditioning and practices coaches and students are doing.
“But we have had a number of positive cases in our athletic department. And I am more concerned about our athletes being exposed to other places outside of our district,” Looney said, adding he didn’t know how other districts are safeguarding their students and coaches from the coronavirus.
“So at this time I’m going to announce I’m going to delay any competitions until the middle of September — Sept. 14,” he said.
At that point, Looney said, he would study the data and what other districts are doing and experiencing to decide if competition should begin.
Board member Katie Reeves said she appreciated the decision to delay the sports games.
“There are those in the community who are not anti-sports, they just don’t see the consistency if students are not going to be in school” to then have students in sporting events, she said.
Looney said he told other school districts of his decision, but didn’t think any other district was making a similar announcement at the time.