The Platte County Health Department board of directors agreed to leave the decisions to continue fall sports and other extracurricular programs in the hands of the school districts – which are cleared to start school on Tuesday, Sept. 8 - at a special meeting of the board last week.
The board met Thursday, Aug. 20 for two hours of discussions on subjects such as gating criteria, sports, expanded COVID-19 testing and more.
At a meeting held Tuesday, Aug. 18, the board deferred discussion on the gating criteria for a safe return to school recently established for the Kansas City metro area as part of the “Safe Return KC” plan. The K-12 Regional Gating Criteria were compiled in consultation and cooperation with local public health departments, school superintendents and Children’s Mercy Kansas City.
“We’re dealing with a beast that we’ve never dealt with before with COVID. Everything we’re learning changes day to day and we’re not trying to play follow the leader,” said health department director Mary Jo Vernon at the Thursday meeting. “We’re just trying to be cohesive so it isn’t so confusing for the schools, the students and the parents.”
After discussions with the superintendents of all four Platte County districts, the board deferred adoption of the gating plan in favor of creating its own. A task force made of up educators, local doctors and mental health officials will be formed to help districts set thresholds for in-person learning, hybrid models and all-virtual schooling.
“You are the experts on the health side of it, let us be the experts on the school side,” North Platte superintendent Karl Matt said at the meeting.
Park Hill superintendent Dr. Jeanette Cowherd said she viewed the KC metro area gating plan as a valuable tool to create a more localized plan.
“I love sports and I miss the marching band playing, but also at the same time I am responsible for providing a safe environment for my students and my staff,” Cowherd said.
Park Hill has been training school nurses to conduct contact tracing and hiring additional staff to help with tracing and other precautions. She said the Park Hill district was sprawling, with the families of students and staff working and living all over the metro area, making it difficult to keep populations isolated.
Also, she said people have a range of reactions to the virus, with some staffers terrified to return to the classroom and others who don’t believe the virus even exists. This extreme range makes handling the return to school challenging.
Platte County R-3 superintendent Dr. Mike Reik noted the Suburban Conference was scheduled to vote soon on whether or not to proceed with fall sports. That vote occurred Monday, Aug. 24 with the conference moving forward with the sports season, with precautions in place.
At the Thursday meeting, he said options suggesting deferring fall sports to the spring was no safer because no one knows what the situation will be in the spring.
TESTING TO INCREASE
Board members also discussed the problems arising in cooperation with the public as more and more people refuse to be tested, or will refuse to disclose their recent contacts, impeding contact tracing.
Officials said the University of Kansas Medical Center has coined an unofficial term for this - COVID Weary Syndrome, or COWS.
“We’re building the airplane as we’re flying it and people think we have all the answers, but we don’t,” Vernon said.
To continue getting the most accurate picture of infection rates in Platte County, the board also approved expansion of free COVID-19 testing to include asymptomatic individuals in addition to symptomatic individuals and close contacts of persons known to be positive for COVID-19. The funding for this expanded program will come from the health department’s reserve fund.
The board will meet again on Tuesday, Sept. 15 to revisit these decisions.