The Park City School District Board of Education met in a special session on Tuesday. The Superintendent provided them with an update on anticipated changes to quarantine guidelines for students.
Park City School District Superintendent Jill Gildea told the board to expect quarantine guideline changes for students exposed to COVID-19. There is a proposal to reduce the quarantine time from 14 days to 7 days, which would hinge on negative test results.
“And Dr. Dunn, the state epidemiologist has recommended we look at this. Shortened quarantine period because statewide to date, only 1.2% of students of the classroom seating-based quarantine are actually showing to have contracted the virus. Also, in that seven-day time period after exposure or potential exposure can capture 90% of the cases that are going to emerge."
Gildea says the school manual language, based upon stat e public health recommendations, will include specific caveats.
“It will say that if kids have their masks on the whole time, so if it's your lunch buddy, you're still kind of at 14-days because you had your mask off. But if it's in the classroom, you had your mask on, you’re deemed a close contact, at seven days, you can choose to have a COVID test and if it comes back negative, and you have no symptoms, you can then return to school.”
Gildea says the district wants feedback on the proposed quarantine changes. They’re taking a local poll to get input, but it really is more of a state-wide public health order. It remains unclear how access to testing and verification of results will work, but the district will work with the various agencies and the county health department to sort that out.
Gildea reminded the board that the state watches GIS information and school-based incidents and if Summit County goes to an orange alert again, there will be changes to in-school schedules.
“And if the incidence loads start getting high, they give us a call. They’ll look at what the school-based cases are, but they're letting us know that right now, Summit county is higher than the target level, which we understand.”
Gildea told the board that most of the cases associated with the school district are students in the upper grades and who are active in extracurricular activities.
As of this report, 258 high school students are in quarantine or self-quarantine representing 20% of the high school. Thirty-four percent, or 419 students are currently remote learning. Forty-six percent of students, or 569, are in-class learners.
“The state department would come out with that information for us and then that will have and effective date. I don't know what effective date it will list. We’ll again, follow the state guidelines as we have the whole time. For this I am simply preparing you, that in the event the incidence load continues to be very high, in other words, the county changes to orange, we probably need to have the conversation.”
Gildea says the district is prepared to change to 100% remote classes, or to hybrid learning should the case counts warrant.
