The Press-Dispatch

The Press-Dispatch Wednesday, November 18, 2020 A-7 SCHOOL Continued from page 1 rrent policies are not in line with our neighboring schools and the quarantining policies we are using are actually sup- porting the case to keep up hybrid. Especially closing us down, because we are quaran- tining teachers and students instead of consideration of do- ing pods. Entire classes are getting quarantined. Existing practices place distancing and barriers, and we end up clos- ing because we have too many teachers quarantined." "We are not talking about in- creasing numbers of cases, we are talking about quarantine in fear of exposure that is almost universally not lethal to our students," said Houchin. "Actually, I feel like we are failing our kids academical- ly and unintentionally placing kids in harm's way. These kids who are being sent home are being cared for by one of our most vulnerable populations, which are our older adults and grandparents. Not to mention the potential ramifi cation on overall mental health. Accord- ing to the CDC, we are seeing increasing rates of substance abuse disorders which our kids are not exempt from. I am look- ing for help from you guys for a path forward to keep our kids in school," he said. Jessica Collins joined in the push for getting back to school. "I appreciate you letting us talk to you. None of us want to be sitting where you are sit- ting. We are appreciative that you are guiding us through new territory. I have three kids in your system. Good students who desperately want to be in school full-time," said Collins. "I'm a nurse practitioner in Dubois Co. COVID is a huge portion of my day. I see sus- pected and confi rmed cases all day long. Because of this, I don't want to downplay the se- riousness of COVID." She said she couldn't explain why a 50 -year-old is hospital- ized when a 90 -year-old isn't. "What I can tell you is children are not part of the population I'm concerned with." "Every child I have seen that is positive for COVID, I wouldn't have blinked an eye at giving an antibiotic to because they were so mild. We received that test because I need to get them back into school. Or we got that test because they knew a parent was positive or an exposure existed. She said, nationwide, children make up 11 percent of the COVID cas- es and in Pike County, it is 12 percent. "So if you do the math, you will see that is 52 children un- der the age of 19 who tested positive for COVID in Pike County. None of that tells you how sick they were or if they required hospitalization or how did that contact at school or elsewhere happen. In health care, we look at best practic- es based on a cost per ratio. I'm not talking about fi nancial costs. I'm talking about what did you lose and what did you gain." "In my opinion, we quaran- tine aggressively, but when I look at how our neighbor- ing schools do it, and I get to see those kids everyday in Du- bois, their numbers are signifi - cantly higher and I understand their population is higher. It is hard to see our kids in a hy- brid mode. And I know Jas- per just went virtual for part of their school. But why are they able to stay in full-time atten- dance when their case num- bers are higher than ours. I hear and respect the teachers and staff want to stay on a hy- brid schedule, because they feel like it leads to more con- sistent attendance and I re- spect that. But if we work on decreasing the amount of chil- dren that need quarantining, then we will have less children out and less of a need to be on a reduced schedule," said Col- lins. "I have sat down and looked at the guidelines. And it is a lot and a lot of it is confl icting. Never once did I see in the guidelines though that they recommended shutting one school based on another. So if Winslow has no cases and Pe- tersburg has no cases and our outbreaks for that week are at the high school level, why are we closing other schools be- cause one school is out? " asked Collins. "I know there are going to be instances where we have to shutdown. I 100 percent expect it. Where we have to take a two-week break, I understand that. But what do we have to do to decrease those numbers? " "As I look at the data, when you sit down and look at the children, because there is ag- gressive tracing done over the kids who are sent home, how many of those kids are sent home based on an exposure at school? My guess is not a lot. Most of your exposure is in a household contact and we ex- pected that." "We expect the kids posi- tive and parents positive. We need a quarantine based on that. But what benefi t did it do to send home everyone who walked past them that day. I'm not saying that is exactly what you are doing, but there are a lot of kids who are sent home. Was it worth the 50 or 100 that were sent home? " "I'm asking to look at other schools and see what is work- ing and what isn't. Did we fi nd a benefi t for sending all of those kids home. If your an- swer is yes, we sent home 100 kids and 50 of those tested pos- itive, then you are doing exact- ly what you are supposed to be doing. But if that answer is no, then what were we doing to de- crease that? " asked Collins "I see kids in Dubois, I'm testing kids on a daily basis. Because they need a test to get back into school. When I read those guidelines, I never read or found where you could do that," said Collins. I never found if you had a negative test, you send kids back. But some how they are doing it." "Are our guidelines set by county or the state. I'm not asking you to fake the num- bers. I'm not asking you to lie, I'm asking you to see what is the benefi t and what it is cost- ing us? " "I assume you will fi nd a de- crease or a decline in the ed- ucation of the student if they aren't going full-time. I can see that just on reading skills if they aren't going full-time. My youngest is in the second grade. She does very well. But that group of children had a fragmented fi rst year and a fragmented second grade year. Third grade, I'm going to expect her to take an iRead test and I'm going to expect her to do pass it like other schools where kids have been in school. That is terrifying to me," said Collins. "Another concern is mental health, depression is on a rise, kids need consistency. You are painfully aware many chil- dren fi nd safety and stability in school. I'm not going to tell you anything that you don't al- ready know. I need to you to understand I see this on a clin- ical level. I see children and lack of resources. I see the in- crease in alcoholism. I see the increase in unsupervised chil- dren. The number two cause of death of teenagers is suicide. Not COVID. Unintentional in- juries is number one. Unsuper- vised children and unintention- al injuries is number one, sui- cide is number two. Nowhere on there is COVID. We have zero COVID deaths in Indi- ana under the age of 19," said Collins. "Again, I'm not downplaying its seriousness. I'm just telling you what it costs us and ask- ing you what are you gaining from it? " "Look at your plan. Is it de- creasing cases? If it isn't, let's take a hard look at it. I plead with you to take a hard look at school attendance, base your decision on fact and not fear. Really look at your numbers. Look at the kids you sent home, what good did it do? How ma- ny of those tested positive for COVID? " asked Collins. "When I call a parent or a child and tell them they test- ed positive, they are almost relieved because they now get to attend school for the next three months because they tested positive for COVID and they can't be sent home. That is sobering. It breaks my heart. They are relieved. Every time they hear kids whispering about some kid who may be sick or Johnny who sits next to them in science and isn't there today, they are thinking, 'do I get to come to school to- morrow? ' Don't make whether they get to attend school anoth- er thing for them to have anxi- ety about," said Collins. Former school teacher De- nise Harris asked about who and what decided who gets quarantined. She said she had two children in the system. "We just seem to have a lot of different polices compared to other school corporations. I guess that is my big question," said Harris. "If they can do certain pol- icies and keep their kids safe and continue on, I don't under- stand why we can't do the same things." "It seems like they do policy X YZ and we do X YZ plus ABC. And I guess my other question is, is the board, the county health dept. and school nurses who make the decision? If it is, the policy doesn't change, we are going to be on this hybrid schedule until I don't know. I fi gure, you know, come winter, it was going to be hard to stay full-time, but we have been do- ing this since September 1 or Aug 30, or whenever it was the fi rst time and I just think we are doing a big disservice to our kids. They need to be in school. It isn't just the academ- ics, they need the social, too. Other schools are continuing to have youth basketball pro- grams. My understanding is we aren't having the Charger Cub program. Other schools are having those programs. How is it they are able to do it and why are we not? " Harris asked about the num- ber of kids quarantined from one exposure. "I talked to another corpo- ration and the most a kid had taken out was 28 students. The least was one kid had taken out was three. Here it seems like one kid can take 50 or 60. I just want some answers. I don't un- derstand why? Who is mak- ing these decisions? Who sets the policy? Can the policy be changed, so hopefully we can get back to a situation where we have kids in school more than they are out? " said Har- ris. Harris said she talked with a principal in another school corporation. "I had a principal say all the kids sent home are identifi ed as B students. So the COVID person is A, all the con- tact kids are B. Not one person had ever come back and tested positive." John Mason told the board he had three children in the system and he wanted them going to school. "I don't know where all this is coming from. We are exploring sending our kids to other schools. My kids don't want to do that. It is the last thing they want to do. How long until something is going to change? " asked Mason. He also asked, "What is the threshold, the determining fac- tor in all this? " A fter the public questions and comments, Superinten- dent Dr. Suzanne Blake said, "Basically, what we do is look at our local statistics, what is going on in our community. It is not just what color our coun- ty turns. (Referring to the state's positivity rate map). When we turned red, we did not adjust at that point. We felt like we could function within the school. We consulted with the local Health Dept., school nurses and building adminis- trators. We try to gather data on what is going on and make our decisions." "As far as one of the ques- tions that was asked tonight. We are following the guide- lines that come from the In- diana State Dept. of Health. How can one county do it this way and one county do it an- other way? I don't have that answer. Much of the policy is determined by county health offi cials. We know there are counties adjusting or abbrevi- ating the quarantine schedule so they can get athletes back into play faster. In my opinion, that is bending the rules," said Blake. "We are going to follow the rules. We aren't going to be bending the rules just to try and get somebody back on an activity faster. As far as the youth sports, I can tell you ma- ny of our quarantines have hap- pened from outside the class- room, whether school spon- sored or private activities," said Blake. "Some of those contacts are not within the school's control because they are an outside agency, but they impact our schools. How long it is going to go? I don't know. It will depend on the trends," said Blake. She added she had informa- tion cases in the area were ris- ing. "They are watching the trends and reporting back on that. I know I don't like being at home. I defi nitely like hav- ing every kid in school on a normal schedule. One of our decisions is shutting down all four schools just like when we have a snow day or anything else. Our transportation is dif- ferent than anyone else. We al- so know we have a lot of work- ing families where they rely on older siblings for childcare. Where if it weren't for the older students, there wouldn't be any childcare. We made that deci- sion trying to help those fami- lies maintain their work." "We made that decision where there was one school impacted. I can tell you, it has been a rolling impact. Where one is hit this time and next month, it may hit a different level. . . .Unfortunately, I have to gather all the data. I'm given the consensus and data, then go from there." "I know it isn't going to be a decision that makes every- one happy. If you are asking when it is going to end, I don't' know." School board member Chris McKinney said, "I want to thank you for coming in and sharing your opinions. I want you to know none of us up here don't want our kids in school. I have a girl in school and she wants to be in school. So a lot of our decisions, we aren't just taking it from one person. We talk to multiple people, school nurses and county offi cials and people of that nature. I do agree with some of you and things you said. But it is al- ways changing and we need to be able to adapt and change with it," said McKinney. "I understand you said when we go hybrid, it is based on all the data in general. Who makes the decision this class is quarantined or who makes decision this entire athlet- ic population is quarantined? That is what is causing us to go on hybrid. Because when one kid goes down, there goes the whole classroom. Oth- er schools are not doing this. Maybe they aren't playing fair- ly, I don't know. I'm just asking who is deciding who gets quar- antined? " said Harris. "It is the identifi cation guide- lines from the state that comes down to our buildings. I get it, other buildings and counties are following it differently," said Dr. Blake. "Why can't we follow it the way other counties are follow- ing it? " asked Harris. "First of all, these are not our policies. We haven't creat- ed these policies. You are want- ing us to answer question that you aren't giving us informa- tion on. You are saying some counties poises are A, B and C and we are doing D, E and F. Well what are those policies.? We are trying to do the best we can do," said McKinney. Harris said she knows par- ents whose kids go to other school corporations. She said they are telling her if a kid tests positive or has a close contact, those schools are just sending home kids immediately sur- rounding that student, not ev- eryone in the same classroom. "I'm not blaming anyone. I'm trying to fi gure out who is making the policy and can it be changed. Because if it isn't, I don't know how this hybrid ever goes away," said Harris. "I can tell you, I have talked to each and every nurse in the schools. And I can tell you, the way they do the contact infor- mation is exactly the way it is mandated by the state. If the state says this child needs to be quarantined, that is what happens. And if it isn't, then we don't quarantine. We ar- en't picking and choosing," said McKinney. "As a board member, I think we do have to talk with every- body involved in this. Maybe we can adjust something be- tween now and the next three weeks. That is something I can tell you we will defi nitely look at and talk about. I can't promise we are going to stay full tilt. I can't promise we are going to come out of hybrid. I want to. Hands down, my kids want to be in school everyday," said board member Chris Sat- terfi eld. 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