#15,034
Right now Washington State - and most particularly King and Snohomish County - are at the forefront of the COVID-19 crisis in the United States. They've confirmed 39 cases, and 10 deaths, and readily admit there are `likely hundreds' of other - mostly mild - cases in the community.
Yesterday King County/ Seattle public health released recommendations that - if you are over 60, or have comorbidities - you should try to stay at home as much as possible. Employers should encourage employees to work from home, large meetings (> 10 people) or other gatherings should be discouraged, and regardless of severity - if you are symptomatic at all - you should stay home from work or school.
School closures - which are ultimately left up to local school officials - were not recommended at this time, however.One school district in Washington State, however - already heavily impacted by COVID-19 cases - has decided to pull the trigger anyway.
According to the letter sent out overnight (see below), 26 schools in their district have been directly or indirectly affected by the outbreak, several school employees and/or volunteers have tested presumptively positive for the virus - or are awaiting test results - and they are already experiencing 20% absenteeism.As so often happens in a crisis - events have a way of overtaking policy - and that appears to what is happening here. I've posted only a portion of the letter sent out to parents overnight. Follow the link to read it in its entirety.
Letter to Families: All School Sites Closing March 5
Mar 4 2020
I have spent the past few weeks researching and monitoring the rapidly changing COVID-19 coronavirus health issue in our region and across the world. Every step we’ve taken over the past couple of weeks has been taken only after thoughtful consideration and deep discussions with many who are invested in both the education and well-being of our children. I have also been working closely with our district leadership, school board, educators, labor groups, families, health departments, peer school districts and elected officials to plan for what the CDC suggested may be a required change from our daily routines. OSPI State Superintendent Chris Reykdal recommended last week that districts engage in contingency planning for the possibility of extended school closure should the situation in our state dramatically change in the coming weeks. As you know from previous communication, we have been engaged in that work, in earnest.
Now, I believe that the time has come for our district community to make an important shift. All schools sites in the Northshore School District will be closed beginning Thursday, March 5 for up to 14 days while we continue to monitor the situation and health department recommendations. Today and tomorrow we will communicate plans to transition instruction from classroom to cloud (online learning) beginning Monday, March 9. This decision was made thoughtfully and with the support of a variety of district and community leaders.
Why am I making the decision today?
I considered the fact pattern that my team and I have been tracking since mid February and into this afternoon. By now you are aware that we closed Bothell High School for two days last week to deep clean and wait for test results from the family member of an employee. Frank Love Elementary was closed on Monday so we could clean and wait for test results on another employee. We are still waiting for those results. Multiple individuals from across our district are in self-quarantine because they may have been exposed to the COVID-19 coronavirus as a result of the issues at the senior home in Kirkland.
At about 8:30 this morning, we were informed by a parent/volunteer at Woodmoor Elementary School that their medical provider had run tests and the results are “presumptively positive” for the COVID-19 virus. Our staff at Woodmoor worked quickly with families to minimize any additional exposure and send students home safely. In addition, 26 of our schools have been affected via direct or indirect exposure to the COVID-19 virus. We are receiving numerous calls and emails from parents and staff who are self-quarantining or are choosing to keep their students home. Today, our absentee rate for students districtwide was 20 percent.
While we are working to minimize exposure of our students by making sure the education continues online, we are also concerned about the health of our staff. Dr. Jeff Duchin from Public Health Seattle & King County said today that children are not believed to be at serious risk for the disease, but we must be mindful of the population that is at higher risk. The new public health recommendations to slow the spread of coronavirus we received following today’s press conference indicate that those people at higher risk should stay home and away from large groups of people as much as possible; e.g., those with weakened immunity, pregnancy and those who are 60 and over. As we are a veteran staff in Northshore, we have employees who fall into all of these categories.
The conservative number calculated for those 60 and over alone is an impact of more than 500 or over 16 percent of our staff, including those in instruction, in food services, and those driving buses full of students. We also have numerous staff that have other identified high risk factors making the safe operation of our schools untenable.
Rapidly changing situation:
At the time I sent my letter last night, there were 21 confirmed cases of the COVID-19 coronavirus in King County, including eight deaths; there were six cases in Snohomish County, including one death. Today, the Washington State Department of Health website says the number of confirmed cases in King County is 31 with 10 deaths. Keep in mind that just six days ago, there was only one known COVID-19 coronavirus case and no known deaths. As our district straddles both counties and three cities, we are impacted by the collective data.
Our Governor has shared his thoughts that folks should begin to think about avoiding large events and assemblies to reduce the risk of catching the virus. King County Executive Dow Constantine said at today’s news conference, “We are encouraging employers to maximize telecommuting and to make it possible for employees who can work from home to do so. Community groups should avoid creating large gatherings.
The rule of thumb that Public Health has recommended is gathering of more than 10 people.” Many of us would agree that a school building with 500-2000 individuals including students and staff, would be considered a large assembly, especially during lunch and other periods where sometimes hundreds of students.
(Continue . . .)
As we've discussed previously, there is a strong desire on the part of governments (both local and national) to maintain `normalcy' during any crisis. Hence we get `measured' recommendations - such as the WHO released 4 months ago on the use of NPIs - that attempt to minimize disruptions while still increasing public safety.
Many of those recommendations (no travel restrictions, no border closings, no quarantines, etc.) have already been largely ignored by many governments around the world.And while highly disruptive, those decisions appear to have significantly slowed the spread of the virus. They have probably bought the world an extra 30 to 60 days to prepare.
The decision to close the Northshore school district now - given the impacts of COVID-19 on 26 of their schools - seems more than prudent. Given the speed of spread of COVID-19, school districts all across the country will almost certainly be faced with similar difficult decisions in the weeks and months ahead.
Schools in Washington State find themselves in an unenviable position - being the first to deal with COVID-19 - but what we glean from their experience over the next couple of weeks should help other communities around the country determine the right course of action for their own schools.
