Battle Ground schools grapple with COVID-19 surge

Rick Bannan / [email protected]

As the omicron variant of COVID-19 makes its manner via Clark County, Battle Ground Public Schools has dealt with the impacts of spiking virus exercise inside district borders.

In a Jan. 7 letter, BGPS Superintendent Denny Waters alerted households to the state of affairs. As of the letter, the district was in a position to maintain its doorways open, although Waters mentioned “we’re more likely to see issues worsen earlier than they get higher” as the height of the present wave of COVID-19 exercise is anticipated towards the top of the month.

“I would like you to know that there might come some extent after we can’t proceed, and we’re compelled to shut schools for a short while or to droop much more packages, together with extracurricular actions,” Waters wrote.

As of Jan. 7, Waters mentioned the district was not but at that time.

During the BGPS Board of Directors’ Jan. 10 assembly, Waters up to date the board on the COVID-19 state of affairs within the district’s schools. Since college students returned after winter break, he mentioned instances have elevated drastically.

Waters mentioned previous to winter break the district’s testing facility on the Lewisville campus was testing about 60 individuals day by day. The positivity charge at the moment was about 10%.

In the week previous to Jan. 10, Waters mentioned the location examined a median of 130 individuals a day, together with 130 workers and 451 college students over the week. The positivity charge for the week was 44%.

Between Nov. 22 to Dec. 10, Waters mentioned the testing facility noticed 93 confirmed instances throughout that point, with 9 workers members and 84 college students. From Jan. 3 to Jan. 10, the district noticed 427 instances at its facility, with 89 workers members and 328 college students.

On the day of the assembly, Waters mentioned 10 lecturers examined constructive on Jan. 10 for COVID-19 at before-school testing the place 40 individuals have been examined.

“So you may see that omicron is considerably impacting us,” Waters mentioned.

Waters mentioned usually he would supply information on potential shut contacts, however the sheer variety of college students and workers affected have made it tough for the district to maintain up.

“The contact tracing at the moment has overwhelmed us to a level,” Waters mentioned.

Waters advised the board that the varsity district wasn’t alone. He talked about Washougal, La Center and Vancouver faculty districts are experiencing the identical factor.

“The numbers are skyrocketing in every single place and the thought of contact tracing is tough,” Waters mentioned.

Specifically for Vancouver Public Schools, Waters famous native districts have moved to some distant studying of their schools. He mentioned VPS introduced its plans for digital studying the day of Battle Ground’s faculty board assembly. The Vancouver district determined 1 / 4 of its scholar inhabitants could be in a distant format for studying on a weekly foundation.

Waters mentioned the shift is usually resulting from buses, as VPS had a big variety of its drivers out. He mentioned BGPS isn’t at present within the place to take the identical measures as Vancouver.

Though not deliberate for implementation as of the assembly, Waters mentioned he may see particular buildings within the district going distant.

“We have some buildings which have zero workers absent … after which we now have different buildings which have 12 or 13 absent, or eight unfilled positions,” Waters mentioned.

The COVID-19 exercise surge has usually affected scholar attendance, Waters mentioned. Though common attendance was at 90%, within the first few days of the brand new calendar yr it dropped to about 85%, with it nearer to 81% as of the board assembly.

The district went from 195 workers absences as of Jan. 5, 90 of which went unfilled, to 226 absences on Jan. 10, with 114 unfilled.

Waters mentioned steering on quarantine procedures is ever-changing. As of the Jan. 10 assembly, those that examined constructive may quarantine for 5 days. If by then that they had no signs or signs have been resolving, they didn’t require a damaging check. Those quarantined as a detailed contact can return after 5 days with a damaging speedy antigen check, which differs from the PCR check that requires an extended time period to verify the outcomes since they’re despatched to a lab.

Waters mentioned the district testing facility is shifting from PCR exams to the speedy antigen exams, per new pointers. At-home exams can be legitimate affirmation so long as the scholar’s household takes a photograph of the check clearly displaying the consequence. It should be marked with the scholar’s title and the date of the check.

The district ended up operating out of its personal exams on Jan. 7, Waters mentioned. He mentioned there isn’t a backload of exams, simply “a backload of the logistics of with the ability to get the exams out,” including BGPS was not alone within the scarcity. The solely exams left are for athletes which the district didn’t wish to use to keep away from shutting down sports activities packages, he mentioned.

To accommodate for the check scarcity, the district is requiring the nascent revival of its center faculty sports activities program to masks all members.

Waters remarked that state-level steering on COVID-19 protocols can change within the span of some hours on any given day.

“I apologize to all of the dad and mom who … get pissed off as a result of they name us up at eight-o-clock within the morning and we are saying ‘no, I’m sorry (your little one) can’t return but as a result of we haven’t gotten the (Department of Health) steering,’ after which two hours later we are saying ‘sure, you may return as a result of we do have the DOH steering, however you need to have a check,’ Waters mentioned.

An hour later the steering modified as soon as once more, permitting the scholar to return with out a check, he continued.

Waters stopped throughout his replace to thank the workers of the district. He spoke to the “monumental efforts” that they had taken within the wake of omicron. He mentioned even the administration workplace crammed in for lessons throughout the district the prior Friday.

“But the burden of the work, the burden of the trouble is falling on our particular person buildings,” Waters mentioned.

He mentioned lecturers have given up their preparation interval to cowl lessons with out a substitute, custodians have helped with lunchtime supervision, and various different workers coated positions they don’t seem to be usually assigned to.

“We have all palms on deck, and to this point, we’ve been in a position to do it,” Waters mentioned.

He additionally thanked the neighborhood for endurance because the district grapples with the county’s unprecedented enhance of instances. Later within the week, Clark County Public Health reported the county’s current case charge was practically thrice that of any earlier wave of COVID-19.

Waters acknowledged there may be “nonetheless quite a lot of worry” amongst district households as to how secure the schools are.

“We are nonetheless following the steering from the Department of Health. We haven’t stepped outdoors that steering,” Waters mentioned. “Schools are proven to be one of many safer locations for college students, as a result of they’re practising the behaviors.”