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Date: 1/18/2022
EASTHAMPTON – During a meeting on Jan. 11, the Easthampton School Committee discussed important updates and possibilities regarding the COVID-19 pandemic, and how to properly approach the growing presence of the Omicron variant.
According to Superintendent Allison LeClair, the district had a total of 91 cases during the week following Christmas break, many of which were reported by families who took rapid tests at home during the vacation, as well as pool testing done at schools. “Ninety-one cases are the biggest number we have ever seen for COVID cases,” said LeClair. Comparatively, prior to the holiday break, the school district had only reported 14 cases in all.
Because there was so much testing last week after the holiday season, the lab that takes test samples for pooled testing were completely overwhelmed. Easthampton always takes two samples from pooled testing, one from the pool and one from each individual. Because testing was so frequent, the lab only tested the pooled sample, and would only test the individual samples if the pooled sample came out positive. Because of this, the lab was unable to test the district’s individual samples in a timely manner the week after break.
LeClair also noted how there has been times where a pool test is positive, but each individual test is actually negative. LeClair and the COVID-19 Response Team within the district recommended that if that happens again, those students could stay in school, and the district will provide those students with an additional test the next day, as confirmation.
Due to staffing shortages, the lab encouraged the district to test individuals within a positive pooled sample themselves. “We had over 20 positive pools last week,” said LeClair, when speaking on the week after break. “It was incredible, the burden of work placed on all of our staff. I commend our nurses with the highest commendation.”
Because of this surge, the Easthampton School District made the decision to not allow spectators at sporting events for the near future. LeClair described the decision as a “pause” rather than a permanent decision.
Additionally, LeClair also mentioned in her report that the district has been extremely lucky with a lack of absences from the virus, mainly because the district is highly vaccinated. While this is the case, LeClair did mention that contact tracing has overwhelmed staff at the elementary level due to vaccination rates hovering around 50 percent, compared to 80 percent at the high school level.
The response team and LeClair conducted discussions around ending test-and-stay, mainly because it has been a large burden on the district’s school nurses. When vaccines were not available for ages 5 to 11 early on in the school year, test-and-stay was more of a formidable force to stop the spread. With vaccinations now widely available, the response team is hoping families can prioritize getting the vaccine for their children as the ultimate preventive strategy. A part of this team is Megan Harvey, the secretary of the School Committee and local epidemiologist.
Harvey agreed that the test-and-stay system is a huge burden on the district’s nurses, as well as forcing them to conduct rapid tests daily for groups of students who are unvaccinated. This is leading to an inability to conduct proper contact tracing and other necessary duties throughout the day. “It’s a huge number for them to be doing,” said Harvey, regarding the amount of people who were positive. “So, is that a fair use of our resources?”
Under a mechanism without test-and-stay, unvaccinated students would stay home for five days if they came in close contact with a person who had tested positive, while vaccinated students would be allowed to stay and be notified if they came in close contact. This would allow the nurses to conduct more contact tracing at a quicker rate.
“By getting the vaccine, [families] are not only helping their children, but they’re helping our staff, so that we’re not burdened with having to test children every day,” said LeClair. “I want to do whatever I can to make the lives of our nurses a little bit easier.”
The district is looking at a target date of March 4 for getting rid of the test-and-stay option to give parents some time to schedule their children for vaccine doses they have not received yet. Vaccine numbers have stagnated in the district, but LeClair said that they will try to develop a vaccine clinic for the future. The district will continue to conduct pooled testing and symptomatic testing if a child is not feeling well.
Marin Goldstein, a member of the School Committee, commended LeClair for making what seems to be the right decisions about disallowing spectators in sports, but he did point out the lack of direction from the state level when it came to COVID-19 response and noted that desired masks and testing kits from the state were not coming through. He suggested that the district put a letter forward to the state to ask for more guidance and help.
“I think the state is doing a very poor job in terms of preparing our population for testing,” said Goldstein. The committee member also felt that the committee should revisit state protocols and guidelines for contact tracing. “I think that guidelines that don’t include vaccinated people in the current data that’s coming out about this [Omicron] variant is incorrect,” said Goldstein.“I would ask that we question that and revisit that, and possibly make a different choice in our local community, because people with vaccination are still getting sick, so to not include that n contact tracing and communication is incorrect in my opinon.” With this in mind, Goldstein said that the district should look into finding additional staff to mitigate the burden that comes with contact tracing, at the moment.
School Committee member Laurie Garcia, meanwhile, prioritized vaccination over test-and-stay, adding that new research from Cornell University found that this method of prevention was only 70 percent valid at the moment. “Test-and-stay isn’t a safeguard as far as I’m concerned,” said Garcia. “People have to get vaccinated.”
The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education recently extended the mask mandate in schools until Feb. 28, and districts who reach that 80 percent benchmark for vaccination can decide to get rid of the mandate. Although the district is past that threshold, the Easthampton School Committee has no intention to abolish the mask mandate at this time.