The first schools took less than a month of classes to reach the Utah state-designated threshold for a COVID-19 outbreak this fall.
More than 30 children at Syracuse Elementary School in the northern part of the state have tested positive for the virus, according to a warning sent by the Davis School District on Monday morning. And, in a second announcement last Monday, the Draper 2 campus of the American Preparatory Academy confirmed that there are also more than 30 students.
This is because masks have not been required in K-12 schools in Utah this year. And both schools will now begin testing all students with parental permission for the coronavirus, according to the Test to Stay policy instituted by the Utah legislature.
Davis School District spokesman Chris Williams said Syracuse Elementary classes will continue as normal Monday. And testing will begin on Tuesday.
“All schools will be a little different in this process,” he said.
But because it is an elementary school, the district has decided that parents who want to be there when they test their child will have this option and will be informed of when the class will get their nasal tampons. They can choose to do so by calling 801-402-2600 or sending an email to [email protected].
“They’re young kids,” Williams said, “and we want parents to feel comfortable with everything.”
However, all parents must sign a consent form so that their child can be tested on the district’s online portal. If a parent decides not to take their child’s test or if the student tests positive, they should stay home for 10 days of distance learning. This period will end on September 24 at Syracuse Elementary.
Those who test negative can continue to learn in person, if they have no symptoms of COVID-19.
Staff can participate, but are not required to do so.
The threshold was reached when Syracuse Elementary reached 30 cases because it has about 800 students. It opened this year on August 23rd.
Last week, Mariah Bailey learned that the virus had entered her son’s third grade in the Syracuse Elementary classroom just before Labor Day weekend.
“We sent him to school with a mask and I emailed the principal,” Bailey said. “He said the school’s hands are tied and the only people who can make a change are the parents.”
But not many other children wear masks, he said.
American Preparatory’s Draper 2 campus, which is a K-6 charter at the southern end of Salt Lake County, reached 30 cases and has about 1,200 students. It started a week earlier, on August 18th.
The letter will also begin testing on Tuesday. And he will make two video calls with parents on Monday, one at 2 p.m. and another at 7 p.m., to answer any questions, according to an email from the school’s executive director, Carolyn Sharette.
According to state guidelines, schools with less than 1,500 students have an outbreak when 30 students test positive. Schools with more than 1,500 students must affect 2% of their population over a 14-day period.
The state requires that students who test positive during a Test to Stay event be isolated at home, even if they are completely vaccinated. This does not apply to elementary children from either school, because children under 12 are not yet eligible for the vaccine.
Another school, Grand County High School, has had enough of the coronavirus spread for the southern Utah district to cancel classes and extracurricular activities for a week earlier this month. The school did not reach the official threshold, but said that with ten staff members and eight students with COVID-19, it was not feasible to remain open.
The district said, in part, that it could not find enough substitute teachers to keep things going.
Schools have been instructed not to close this year, however, and move on to online learning with an outbreak. Instead, they are supposed to use the Test to Stay protocol to continue operating in person.
Part of the challenge this year, which has also contributed to a greater spread of the virus in the classroom, is that the legislature has banned school districts from establishing their own mask mandates. These can only come from county health departments and must be signed by county governments. So far, few of these efforts have been successful.
So far this school year, there have been approximately 3,700 cases of coronavirus reported among teachers and staff. The state did not reach the same level during the 2020-2021 school year, when masks were needed in K-12 schools, until mid-October.
An outbreak was reported at a charter school earlier last year compared to this year (early September), but the threshold was lower, as 15 cases were reported before closing instruction was given. the classrooms. This was the Draper 1 campus of the American Preparatory Academy.
The state scorecard tends to take a long time to show how many cases there are in each school, although there is an update in progress. The next closest to an outbreak appears to be Cedar Valley High in the Alpine school district, which has 34 active cases.
The Utah Department of Health recommends examining data for each district, for now, to get an accurate count of how many students and staff have COVID-19 in a school.
– Tribune journalist Erin Alberty contributed to this story.