CALDWELL, Idaho — The Caldwell School District Board of Trustees met at a special meeting to discuss the School Operation Plan for the new school year on Thursday. The meeting comes after the school district implemented a mask requirement at several campuses because of concerns regarding increased absences due to COVID-19.
Students and staff at Caldwell High School, Washington Elementary and Lincoln Elementary are required to wear masks on campuses through Sept. 3. The plan recommends face coverings for all other campuses.
“Our goal is to be in school and we’re going to do everything we can to keep kids in school,” Dr. Shalene French, the superintendent for Caldwell School District, said. “As we’re watching attendance and we see that is becoming a red flag we will hold a meeting and we will go to masks first. We do not want to have to move to a remote situation.”
French said the district had been monitoring the situation related to absences at Lincoln since last week. French noticed other quarantine-related issues at Washington involving multiple students. She and the Board of Trustees chair, Marisela Pesina, then met with the administrative team at Caldwell High School because of concerns over several students being absent from illness and being in contact with others who had COVID-19.
“The concern would be if we did not take action, we would be exceeding 25% absenteeism based on us needing to quarantine,” French said.
Under the school district’s current School of Operation Plan, a student or staff member who has tested positive for COVID-19 or has shown signs of symptoms is advised to quarantine at home. Students or staff that have been in contact with them are also advised to quarantine.
If a close contact was wearing a mask at the time of exposure, they do not have to quarantine at home. They are asked to continue wearing a mask and monitor for symptoms.
French said close contact is about three feet away.
“Within the best interests of keeping kids in school we would require mask for ten days,” French said.
Lincoln Elementary had several different classrooms that had multiple children that had to quarantine. French said it seemed like it was in the best interest of the students and staff to require the masks temporarily.
French added that the elementary schools are keeping students in “pods” to contact trace easier.
The three principals at the campuses seeing high absences gave the Board of Trustees data on what the schools are looking like.
Lincoln Elementary has 309 students registered. Principal Richard Jameson explained to the board they have 44 students who were listed as quarantined as of Thursday. Half were quarantined because of contact tracing from the school.
Twenty-one students called in sick Thursday, making a total of 65 students absent at Lincoln.
“It’s a little concerning in that respect when that’s a little bit more than 20% of our population,” Jameson said.
Washington Elementary has 513 students enrolled. Principal Mike Jones said Thursday’s attendance was just above 85%, with 74 students absent. Since the beginning of school on Aug. 18, there have been 27 students who have been quarantined. Ten were from contact tracing at the school on Tuesday.
Caldwell High School has 116 students who are placed under quarantine. Principal Anita Wilson said within the last two days, 11 students have tested positive from COVID-19.
In addition, the 116 quarantined students, another 47 students called out sick or had doctor's appointments, as of Thursday. There are multiple students absent Wilson said the school needs to follow up on why they were out.
The high school has more than 1,300 students enrolled. Thursday they had 1,105 students in attendance. Wilson said these numbers are more than they would usually see.
Wilson said since implementing the masks at school she has received comments from parents and families. Some were opposed to the requirement, but many were happy with the decision. She said a lot of parents were concerned when their students had to go home for quarantine because they did not do well last year with remote learning.
“I think that when teachers, students and parents realize that a face covering is a mitigating factor and can protect students and keep them in school and learning, that it’s a small price to pay,” Wilson said.
Wilson said during contact tracing, they were able to find close contact students who had been vaccinated and could return to school immediately, however, they still need to be tested. She said it’s getting more students intrigued by the idea of getting vaccinated.
“Those students are happy when they get to stay in school,” she said. “We do have a vaccination clinic coming up that will be hosted at our school in about a month or six weeks and I anticipate that there will be students who want to participate in that.”
Preschool has delayed the start of school at Wilson Elementary until Sept. 7 due to a COVID-19-related teacher absence.
Thursday’s meeting is the second time the board has met this week. On Monday, the Board of Trustees passed a vote to require all visitors to wear masks while in school buildings.
The School Board plans to meet again on Monday, Aug 30. to continue its discussion on the School Operation Plan. No word if that discussion involves a district-wide mask requirement.
“We want students in school, we all agree that it is the best place for them and if we can mitigate the spread of the Delta variant and COVID-19 virus so that we can have healthy kids, that’s what we're going to do,” French said.
The public is encouraged to email the board clerk kcheney@caldwellschools.org with any questions or comments prior to Monday’s meeting.
At KTVB, we’re focusing our news coverage on the facts and not the fear around the virus. To see our full coverage, visit our coronavirus section, here: www.ktvb.com/coronavirus.
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