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Date: 9/13/2021
GRANBY - The Granby School Committee announced that the district has chosen to sign up for routine COVID-19 safety checks, formerly known as pool testing, at their Sept. 7 meeting. The testing will be optional for students and parents can choose to sign their child up for testing or take them out of testing at any time.
According to Nancy Jenks, nurse leader, routine COVID-19 safety checks in schools help monitor COVID-19 in buildings, reduce absences, allow students to stay in school, is free, easy, quick and follows state guidelines.
There are three different types of approved COVID-19 testing in the state. They are asymptomatic testing, close contact testing and routine COVID-19 safety checks. Granby has chosen to participate in close contact testing and routine COVID-19 safety checks. There is the potential for them to add symptomatic testing in the future, according to Jenks.
Close contact testing would be for an individual who was within six feet of a COVID-19 positive individual, indoors, for at least 15 minutes over a 24 hour period. Exemptions for this are if the close contact is fully vaccinated and asymptomatic, the close contact took place in a classroom where they were both masked and three feet apart or they were on a bus, masked, with the windows open.
If a close contact chooses to decline in-school testing, they are required to quarantine for at least seven days from the start of exposure. They are allowed to return if they are asymptomatic and receive a negative COVID-19 test on day five or later. They must conduct active monitoring of symptoms for 14 days.
If a close contact chooses to decline out-of-school testing, they are required to quarantine for at least 10 days from the date of exposure and can return on day 11 as long as no symptoms occur and they continue to monitor themselves through the 14 days.
Routine COVID-19 checks, previously known as pool testing, involve combining several test samples together. Jenks said that if one test comes back positive, all individuals will then be retreated with a rapid antigen test. Those who are asymptomatic can return to school until the positive individual is identified. They will all be required to wear masks.
Jenks also noted the importance of keeping kids home from school if they feel sick.
“If the kids are sick we want them to stay home. It’s really important that they’re not coming in because if they do have COVID-19 and they wait to come see the nurse, they’ve now exposed everyone else in the building,” she said.
If an individual does test positive for COVID-19 they will be required to isolate for a minimum of 10 days. They can return after the 10 days if they have been without a fever for 24 hours and have not taken any fever reduction medicine and if they have experienced improvements in other symptoms.
Given the requirements for isolation, many families and School Committee members are concerned about absences. Currently, the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education has said students will be marked absent for any illness absences, but they can work toward attendance recovery. The state has said they are still working on this policy and it could change.
Superintendent Stephen Sullivan said that students shouldn’t be punished for their absences and that, as long as they are actively contacting their teachers and making up missed work, they will not be reprimanded.
“For a student who’s absent, it can’t be held against them. They can’t lose participation because they have to be out of school. So those students who are making up their work and in communication with their teachers should have no impact,” said Sullivan.
Both Jenks and Sullivan said that any parent, guardian, student or staff confused about COVID-19 testing and policies is encouraged to reach out to them for more information. Jenks can be reached at 467-7104, ext. 1055, or njenks@granbyschoolsma.net. Sullivan can be reached at ssullivan@granbyschoolsma.net.
Those interested in viewing the School Committee meeting in its entirety are encouraged to visit the Granby Community Access and Media YouTube.