As the number of positive Covid-19 cases continues to rise in the community, the Rockville Centre School District is taking proactive measures to help keep schools open throughout the winter. For two days next week, before the start of winter break, schools will operate on a fully remote schedule to minimize the risk of exposure, and district officials are urging students, staff and families to take extra precautions while off campus.
“We’re asking everyone to be as responsible as possible, inside and outside the schools,” Superintendent June Chang said. “I’m asking everyone to take every precaution necessary. We as a school district want to remain open.”
At the Dec. 10 Board of Education meeting, Chang detailed a “winter survival guide” he put together that contains tips for recognizing symptoms of Covid-19, reporting them and finding ways to stay mentally and physically healthy.
He emphasized that even minor symptoms could be signs of the virus. “I would ask people to be mindful of those things, report them to our nurse, have a conversation with us,” Chang said. “We want to make sure that we’re keeping you safe, and we’re also keeping the rest of the student body as well as the staff safe.”
He noted that the district had succeeded in keeping buildings open thus far, but, he added, “We want to be prepared for anything that could potentially happen once we return from the break.”
“We want to keep our schools open,” Chang emphasized. “That is our ultimate goal.”
The number of positive cases at all of the schools has continued to rise each week, but none has had to close. To date, the district has reported 60 cases since the beginning of the school year, and there are 23 active cases. Chang said that the number of students at the high school who had switched to remote learning had increased over the previous week, which contributed to the decision to operate remotely on Dec. 21 and 22.
“There are many advantages to doing this. One is that we can prepare and adjust accordingly,” Chang said, explaining that two days of remote work would give teachers and students a chance to familiarize themselves with the technology and schedules, in case the schools are forced to shut down at a later date. “We also don’t want to interrupt families during the holidays.”
He said that, as people reported positive cases over the Thanksgiving break, nurses made calls to families who were already out of town. Having students at home will minimize the risk and reduce the potential need for contact tracing over the holidays. The schools will send out case updates on Jan. 3, and the district requests that anyone who tests positive over the break inform the school nurse. The district’s Covid-19 dashboard, on the home page of the district website, will continue to be updated throughout the break.
“I think it’s a great way for principals to have a practice run for anything that may come in the future, and I think it will help our contact tracing for the holiday week,” said Board of Education President Tara Hackett.
At last week’s board meeting, Chang also gave an overview of the state micro-cluster strategy, which designates regions reporting increases in Covid-19 cases as yellow, orange or red zones. The strategy requires testing a percentage of students and staff in order for schools to remain open if a district becomes a designated zone. In yellow zones, schools can remain open if they test 20 percent of in-person staff and students within two weeks of the designation. Chang said that would mean testing roughly 800 people. The testing would be voluntary and randomized, and would be done at no cost to the district, billed to the insurance companies of those being tested. He noted that, according to a brief survey completed by the district, 73 percent of families and 83 percent of staff said they would take part in the testing.
“We are making every effort to partner with an outside organization, for clinicians to come in who could give tests strictly to our group of 800 who need to be tested,” Chang said. “We want to make sure we have accessibility to this, so if we were to be in any one of these zones, particularly in yellow, we can offer this voluntary option to come in and be tested so we can meet the quota.”
Board Vice President Kelly Barry asked for specifics on how the testing would work, and whether it would start with students or staff. “In order for us to hit that number, we need a good mix of both,” Chang said — about 700 students and 160 staff members.
Board Secretary Christine Ferazani asked if parents could be present during the testing, and Chang said that testing organizations had told him that would be possible.
Barry also asked if there was a way to get feedback from teachers and parents on their experience with going fully remote, and Trustee John O’Shea echoed that sentiment. “I think it would be important to create a tool to get some feedback,” O’Shea said. “I think this is a good opportunity to give it a try.”
