MARSHALL — The COVID-19 pandemic has meant a lot of additional work for nurses at Marshall Public Schools this year. It’s enough that the district will be hiring a full-time nurse aide to help with COVID-19 response.

“Just the tracking of COVID cases has been a lot of work,” MPS Superintendent Jeremy Williams said Monday. The new nurse aide will help keep track of COVID-19 data for Marshall students and school staff, contact parents and perform other duties for the remainder of the school year.

Williams said Monday that MPS had only four or five positive COVID-19 cases district-wide.

“The majority of what we see is people having to quarantine because of close contacts,” or because of other symptoms of illness, Williams said. However, there’s still a lot of work to be done.

School board members approved the new aide position at their Monday meeting. Dion Caron, director of business services at MPS, said the district is ready to make a job offer to a potential candidate.

The new nurse aide will serve all schools across the Marshall district. Caron said the position will be funded through federal CARES Act aid. He estimated that the total cost should be under $30,000.

Marshall High School nurse Deb Herrmann said Monday that COVID-19 response takes up a lot of time for her and other nurses in the Marshall district. School nurses have been responsible for much of the contact tracing for students or staff members who report being exposed or testing positive for COVID-19. Nurses also answer a lot of questions from parents, Herrmann said.

“I think people are getting very good about contacting us,” to figure out if a student needs to stay home because of illness or possible exposure to COVID-19, she said. But with the extra workload, Herrmann said it’s also harder for her to do other important parts of her job.

“We still have to deal with students’ basic health needs,” as well as doing health assessments and developing care plans for students, she said.

“We do feel there will be plenty of work for this to be a full-time position,” Caron said Monday.

Herrmann said for the most part students and families are doing a good job of following COVID-19 precautions, and reporting possible exposures or symptoms. However, there are factors that complicate things, she said. At this time of year students could also be showing symptoms from seasonal allergies, and later this fall and winter they could see more cold or flu symptoms as well as COVID-19.

Herrmann said it will be helpful for students to take good care of their health this year, by getting plenty of rest, staying hydrated and eating a healthy diet. It’s also important for families to call the school if students are sick, and keep sick students at home, she said.

“We’re hoping people will be able to keep coming to school,” Herrmann said.