Seeking balance
Compromise plan lets contact traced students remain in school
NEWS EDITOR
It took more than an hour of sometimes heated discussion and three separate motions Monday night, but in the end the Medford School Board approved a plan that will help keep contact traced students in class while providing peace of mind for students, staff and parents concerned with exposure risk.
The plan that was approved is the same as the preliminary one developed previously by district administrator Pat Sullivan after a meeting he had with local and state health officials, school and county attorneys, the police chief and county sheriff.
Under the plan, students who have been identified as being in close contact with a confirmed case of COVID-19 and who are not showing symptoms will be allowed to attend school and activities provided they wear a mask and practice social distancing whenever possible during the quarantine period.
Under the plan, only students who are in the quarantine period will be re- quired to wear the masks as a way to reduce the chance they can pass on infection to others prior to potentially showing symptoms. As in the past, if a student tests negative on day six or seven of their quarantine period, restrictions will end on day eight. Setting the plan as a school policy provides the school with the ability to use established enforcement procedures for other school rules up to seeking law enforcement assistance in removing individuals from the school buildings if they fail to follow rules.
Previously students who were contact traced were told to remain home under orders of the county health department and were not allowed to participate in sports or activities. With some students facing multiple times of being contact traced, there has been rising frustration among impacted families leading to some choosing to ignore the health department order and go to school anyway.
In presenting his plan to the board, Sullivan proposed including a COVID-19 testing requirement for those who had been contact traced. He received information from health officials on a way to bring in a vendor to provide daily testing in each of the buildings for students and staff through a federal program. This would be at no cost to the school district. He said the contact traced students would be given a rapid test every day they were under quarantine and if the test was negative they would wear the masks and continue through their day. If the test was positive they would be sent home. On day seven, if they tested negative they would no longer need to wear a mask. When asked about finding employees, Sullivan said he was told that is not the school’s problem and the company would provide the workers.
Board member John Zuleger said he felt it was a good compromise. However, board member Dave Fleegel objected to the district doing any contact tracing at all. He called for the district to get completely out of tracing the students noting that he feels the only place they are affecting anything is in the classroom. He said he thinks it is ridiculous that the school would be keeping a student from education when those students are out in the community without any restrictions.
“It is an illusion of safety and I believe we should be done with it as a district,” Fleegel said. He made a motion to do away with any contact tracing at the school.
Fleegel said he was not aware of any employers being notified if their employees were being contact traced. “I don’t see why we should keep anyone from getting their education unless we know they are positive,” he said.
Board member Jodi Nuernberger disagreed saying she felt it was their responsibility as board members to do what they can to ensure students are safe. She said the testing option would give them that.
Fleegel continued his opposition to doing any sort of contact tracing noting that the only time the students have any kind of mark against them for being contact traced is when they are at the school.
“What about the other kids?” asked board member Brian Hallgren questioning the other students who come into contact with students who have been contact traced. He said there are families who have concerns about bringing something home to an at-risk family member.
Fleegel responded that he felt only those who have already been staying home have any leg to stand on with that argument stating that they want healthy kids to be in school getting an education.
Board member John Zuleger urged the board to adopt the plan with the testing.“If you can pick your nose, you can do this,” he said of the test. “It is that quick and simple, it happens without a blink,” he said, noting it has the added benefit of offering peace of mind to a lot of people.
He also noted that in addition to the students, they have staff who don’t have a choice to be in the building and that not having restrictions can be a barrier getting substitute teachers.
“This is an olive branch that gets you painlessly over to the other side and gets kids back to school 100% of the time,” he said.
Fleegel objected saying it is nothing more than appeasing a certain group of people.
Nuernberger noted that in the past when COVID-19 issues have been raised there have been a lot of people at the meetings and sharing their viewpoints. She said they haven’t heard that with this proposal even after it was in the newspaper and made public.
Board member Don Everhard, who attended remotely, questioned the need for both testing and a mask. “I don’t feel it makes sense to have to do both,” he said. “Either we are trusting the test or not.”
Board member Aemus Balsis objected to adding rules that would put law enforcement in the position of enforcing COVID-19 restrictions. Sullivan said the sheriff said he supported the masking plan as being reasonable and that he had spoken with the Medford police chief about the testing portion.
Board member Paul Dixon made a motion to follow the plan as presented by Sullivan with the testing stating that in the past 22 months this was the first time people came together in compromise.
Balsis objected and provided a belated second to Fleegel’s motion. He said he didn’t think the school should in anyway being doing contact tracing. He said it should be the health department’s responsibility to do it.
“It is absolutely ridiculous so many of the protocols we are following, he said. He said he has spoken to the sheriff about this and that he is “adamantly against” it.
“If the health department wants to step in and do this, I know that they can,” he said. He also noted that even if it is not charged to the district having people come in is not free.
“I am not trying to make things less safe,” Fleegel said. He said that in his mind there is not a high enough percentage of risk that the close contact person is a danger to anyone else that makes it worth doing.
Zuleger continued to support the testing plan, noting that one of the major complaints from parents is that they have to travel all over the state to get tested. He said having it available at the school would be the most convenient option especially when it is not costing the district to provide the service.
“What is the argument against testing?” asked Nuernberger.
Fleegel said he felt there was too much tracking taking place and that he feels there is a large majority of the population who are not interested in having tracking take place. He said there are probably students in the school who are positive but who are experiencing no symptoms. “Why are we picking on the healthy kids who are sitting next to someone who tests positive,” Fleegel said.
“We are not picking on them,” Nuernberger responded. Dixon noted that the schools were the only places that there was such a large concentration of people together in the area. Hallgren said the district needed to be following its communicable disease policy. He also stated that there are consequences to decisions and objected to teaching kids not to follow the rules. He also asked about enforcement and if there is a plan B in place to enforce things if the rules are not followed.
He also questioned the legal implications of ignoring the county health department order. Sullivan said the district’s legal counsel said the district is caught in the middle with schools having been sued on either side.
Board members voted 5-3 against Fleegel’s motion to stop all contact tracing with Fleegel, Balsis and Everhard in favor. Zuleger, Dixon, Nuernberger, Hallgren and Steve Deml were opposed. Cheryl Wibben was absent.
Discussion continued on the plan as proposed with the testing and masking of contact traced students. With the issue coming down to disagreement on if the test or the mask would be enough. Steve Deml said he would have liked to have someone from the health department there to provide input.
Sullivan noted that even if the board approved the testing it would take some time to get set up and would probably not be before the beginning of the year. Fleegel disagreed with that assumption saying it could take place sooner. He said they should not give the illusion that it may occur later rather than sooner.
Fleegel said he found having the mask and testing to be redundant and repetitive and opposed any mandatory testing. Balsis agreed and said it would be ridiculous to wear the mask if people tested negative. “If there is a negative test I don’t see both,” he said.
Deml said if there was a delay it would be confusing to have one part now and masking not starting until later.
Enforcement also became a concern for Balsis. “I know the sheriff’s department won’t do anything without a court order,” he said.
On a vote the motion to adopt the plan with requiring daily testing failed on a four to four tie vote with Deml joining Fleegel, Balsis and Everhard opposing it. Nuernberger, Zuleger, Dixon and Hallgren were in favor.
Deml then made a motion to approve the plan without the daily testing requirement, although testing would be available if parents chose to use it. Those who don’t choose to be tested would have to wear masks for the full time of the quarantine.
Citing the need to compromise Fleegel voted in favor of this motion with it passing 7-1 with Balsis opposed.
In a related action, board members approved applying for a waiver from the state for the required number of instructional minutes. State law sets a certain number of instructional minutes per grade level and during the pandemic allows schools to apply for a waiver if there is concern they may not be able to meet that through school closures. Under the waiver, the school would not have to make up lost days. Sullivan noted that he did not expect to have to use the waiver but noted that they came close to calling off school at times this year because of the number of students and staff absent and not being able to get substitutes. If approved by the Department of Public Instruction it would give another tool to the district.
