MISSOULA COUNTY - At their Aug. 10 meeting, the Missoula County Public School Board of Trustees approved their reopening plan and voted 6-3 in favor of approving their face covering guidelines for all K-12 public school students in the county including Seeley-Swan High School. The trustees will review the guidelines at their first meeting in October.
Superintendent Rob Watson made a presentation on MCPS’ reopening plan. He said their COVID-19 mitigation strategies from last year will shift this school year.
Watson told the Board there were several things that worked well last year that they will continue this year. First MCPS did not wait for MCCHD to identify close contacts. Instead they contacted the families directly. He said this effort was a “big lift” but he believes it paid off because they were able to get quick responses in having contagious students stay home.
Second, MCPS was able to secure tests from the state and they conducted their own testing. Watson said this was a “big game changer because it allowed them to determine positive cases quicker and control transmission sooner. The availability of in-school testing will continue this school year.
Watson presented data comparing MCPS to six other school districts in Montana that are similar in terms of administering multiple elementary and high schools. Although the districts are comparable, he acknowledged there were a lot of other variables that would affect the testing rates outside the school including community size, demographics and county-wide case numbers. When compared to these unnamed districts, MCPS saw nearly half of the positive testing rates for both students and a significantly lower positivity in staff than most of the Districts. He believes their layered mitigation strategies kept their positive rates lower.
The Center for Disease Control’s reopening guidance, released in July, emphasized the importance of in-person learning and layered mitigation strategies. While MCPS will again offer its online academy, this year only 200 students are enrolled versus 1,900 students last year.
The CDC said that coronavirus transmission through object touching was not frequent last year. There will still be cleaning protocols, but administrators are less concerned about contracting the virus by sharing supplies.
The quarantine recommendations were also changed. Last year any student who was within six feet of a positive case had to be quarantined for 14 days regardless of mask use. When the vaccines became available, students who were vaccinated did not necessarily have to quarantine especially if they were not showing any symptoms.
According to the new CDC guidelines, students are considered close contacts if they are within three feet of a positive case and the school employs universal masking and other mitigation measures. If face coverings are not mandatory, the six-foot minimal distance and 14-day quarantine period are still required.
Watson said Missoula is currently considered “an area of significant spread.”
According to missoulainfo.com, as of Aug. 13 the county has seen 29 average daily new cases per 100,000 people in the past seven days. As of the meeting, 36.8% of 12-14 year olds and 56.3% of 15-19 year olds in Missoula County have had at least one dose of the vaccine.
There is currently no vaccine option for students under the age of 12. MCPS is unable to require COVID-19 vaccines for attendance due to House Bill 702. It could be added to a list of requirements for enrollment but that would require a change in state law.
Watson said they would follow the CDC’s guidelines and refocus on ventilation and hand washing and put less focus on rigid distancing requirements and transmission through the handling of classroom materials. Distancing recommendations have gone from six feet to three feet.
Regarding sporting events, Watson said they would follow the Montana High School Association’s recommendations regarding spectators for athletic events. Currently there are no restrictions on crowd size from the Missoula City-County Health Department (MCCHD) although they are encouraging social distancing. Administrators are more comfortable about crowds at outdoor events.
He also presented the Board with MCPS’s face covering guidelines. They stated that coverings are required for all students, staff and visitors while they are indoors at MCPS facilities including bus transportation. They will not be required outside. Overall there will be less mask wearing compared to last year.
Staff can lower their coverings if they can maintain six-foot distance. They can also provide “mask breaks” throughout the day and encourage outdoor learning as much as possible. Students will have the opportunity to lower their masks during P.E.
To enforce their mask policy, MCPS said they will offer masks to those entering school buildings. They also hope to involve parents in the discussion by offering accommodations for medical reasons with a physical sign-off.
Prior to public comment, board members shared their thoughts.
Trustee Jennifer Vogel, who also works as a special education teacher for Potomac Elementary School, said she was not in favor of requiring face coverings.
“Now we have a vaccine and most of our community and many of our students have been vaccinated,” she said. “The availability of a vaccine means that we can make different decisions now. The virus has mutated and will continue to do so. … If we impose a mask mandate now out of fear of this variant, then we will always have masks because it will always be mutating.”
Trustee Wilena Old Person voted in favor of the mandate and said that the schools should prioritize the safety of their students.
“I’m speaking as a mother of three boys under 12 who are not vaccinated and come from a population that has had terrible interactions with COVID-19 and I am very concerned about their safety and the need for them to have coverings,” she said. “I do not want to bury a child. I don’t want to have any other child buried out of our school district. … When we took our oath, … we were to protect our students and this is one way that we’re doing this in this pandemic.”
The board voted after listening to more than two hours of public comments. The three dissenting votes came from trustees Vogel, Mike Gehl and Jeffrey Avgeris.
A recording of the meeting can be found on the Missoula County Public Schools’ Facebook page.
The Board of Trustees meets bi-monthly on the second and fourth Tuesday of every month at 6 p.m. For the location and agenda visit https://www.mcpsmt.org/Page/4000#calendar6378/20210813/month
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