Fayette Schools criticized as bus driver dies of COVID-19. 17 in 1 building positive.

Eugenia Higgins Weathers, a Lexington woman who posted on her Facebook account that she loved her job as a Fayette County Public Schools bus driver, died Saturday after she was one of 17 in a garage who tested positive for the coronavirus.

Weathers’ daughter Shacora Faulkner, who is also a district school bus driver, said her 56-year-old mother is not the only transportation employee who worked at the Miles Point school bus garage who tested positive. Her remarks came before the district publicly released the total number of infected a few hours later Sunday.

Noel Carpenter said her 62-year-old mother, a Fayette school bus monitor who worked every day at Miles Point, tested positive on March 26 and is seriously ill in the hospital.

Carpenter said her mother has been on a ventilator for a week and has had pneumonia.

Carpenter and Shacora Faulkner said they are convinced their mothers contracted the COVID-19 virus in a break room at Miles Point. Carpenter said employees were packed in tight after Gov. Andy Beshear said people should practice social distancing.

Faulkner said she didn’t think that enough precautions were taken with school bus garage employees or that district officials were quick enough to notify other employees of exposure.

“Fayette County did not protect us,” Faulkner said. “They did not inform us. Honestly, I feel like they did not care about us. They waited until after everything had blown up to actually contact employees and tell us to stay . . . on quarantine.”

“They just contacted me maybe three or four days ago telling us employees were sick. It’s too late. My mom had already been in the hospital,” she said.

District Chief Operating Officer Myron Thompson responded Sunday night that out of 630 transportation employees, 19 have tested positive for COVID-19. Two work at the Liberty Road garage and 17 work at the Miles Point garage where Weathers worked.

“We are praying for their recovery and heartbroken to have lost one of our amazing staff members,” Thompson said.

Fayette County Public Schools is the second largest employer in the county with 9,057 staff members, so officials said they expected more cases among employees as COVID-19 continued to spread in the community.

The district remains committed to informing staff and families about any possible exposure, Thompson said. Currently, district officials are aware of a total of 27 staff members who have tested positive for the virus, he said.

Carpenter said her mother also was caretaker for two of Carpenter’s aunts, and they tested positive. One is hospitalized she said.

Faulkner said her mother, who had four children, began getting sick on March 21. Weathers found out she was positive on March 26.

Faulkner said her mother worked as a driver after in-person classes were canceled more than two weeks ago because bus drivers delivered lunches to children at certain drop-off points.

The school district had discontinued the drop-off program by March 25 after ”learning a member of our transportation department who was involved in meal service tested positive for COVID-19,” district officials said in a release. (The district has continued to make sure that students are safely provided meals via pickup at various schools.)

District officials also reported March 23 that another transportation employee “with very limited exposure to others” had tested positive. But until Sunday night, the district had not publicly released that more than two dozen employees, including 19 in transportation, had been infected with the virus.

As of Sunday afternoon, the Lexington-Fayette County Health Department said Lexington had a total of 153 positive cases and six deaths.

Faulkner said she has not tested positive.

Faulkner said her mother went into UK’s Good Samaritan Hospital on March 26 and was transferred by ambulance to the University of Kentucky hospital where she was ultimately placed on a ventilator.

“My mother was very caring,” said Faulkner. “She loved her job. She was dedicated. She never missed work. She did all that she could do to help every child.”

Thompson said Sunday that the district worked with the county health department to identify workers at elevated risk after a positive test, and the district encouraged workers not to congregate in groups.

“Facing the rapidly changing landscape of a virus that we learn more about each day, we have made the best possible decisions based on the available information,” said Thompson.

Even before the first case of COVID-19 was reported in Kentucky, district leaders worked with the county health department and took immediate action on each of its recommendations, Thompson said.

The Health Department contacted district officials each time a Fayette school employee tested positive for COVID-19, Thompson said. After completing their contact tracing and patient interviews, health officials identified any employee with an elevated risk of exposure.

The district, in turn, made contact with each of those employees on behalf of the health department to explain the situation and ask them to quarantine for 14 days, he said. The district took the additional step of notifying all staff members and families at that location, even though the health department advised that there was no elevated risk.

After learning of an employee’s positive test on Monday, March 23, district officials notified the only other employee identified to have an elevated risk, sent the employee home to self-quarantine, and shared information about the positive test widely with transportation employees and the public, Thompson said.

The bus delivery of meals was halted as soon as the district learned of the second transportation employee’s positive test results, he said.

“Although we recognized the incredible public health benefit of feeding children who depend on our cafeterias for food, at no time were transportation employees required to report to work after March 13, the last day students were on campus,” he said.

A written memo given to all transportation employees on March 13 said in bold, underline, “You have the option to work next week or not,” he said. In the Fayette district, six out of 10 children qualify for free meals through the federal child nutrition program.

Drivers volunteered to deliver meals to bus stops, he said.

To encourage good hygiene and social distancing, the district made additional hand sanitizer and gloves available, switched to paper timesheets to keep employees from touching time clocks, and repeatedly asked employees not to congregate in the common areas of the bus garage, Thompson said.

Those reporting to work early or waiting between bus runs were directed to move to their cars or sit apart on school buses, according to the district. Those steps were outlined in written memos, emails and emphasized verbally. When employees continued to gather in a break room, chairs were removed and tables were folded up, Thompson said.

Some employees carpool to work and many socialize outside of work, the district pointed out.

After conferring with the health department last week, the district took the added step on Friday of personally calling every transportation employee from the Miles Point bus garage and provided guidance to self-quarantine, Thompson said.

Meanwhile, Director of Transportation Marcus Dobbs said district officials are “grieved by the loss of Eugenia Weathers, who has been a member of our transportation team for 17 years.”

“Eugenia was one of our relief drivers, so she by the nature of her work, she was very flexible and approached every situation with a positive attitude. She had a great disposition and personality, a wonderful sense of humor, and the rare ability to find joy in everyday life,” he said.

This story was originally published April 5, 2020 at 1:31 PM.