MAPLE VALLEY, Wash. — School districts are slowly starting to reopen. All have plans in place for positive COVID-19 cases. Already, some responses are being put to the test.
The Tahoma School District in the Maple Valley area just reopened to K-third grade on Jan. 27. Less than two weeks later, both a student at Lake Wilderness Elementary and a staff member at Cedar River Elementary separately reported testing positive to the district on Saturday.
But the situation of a positive case is very different now from early on in the pandemic, when a case of COVID-19 would shut down a school.
Now a positive case simply triggers a well-practiced response plan.
Principal Melanie Ready of Lake Wilderness Elementary says the lead of their COVID-19 response team got the call first, and they all jumped into action.
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“It’s not stressful — it’s time consuming. We want to make sure we’re doing the appropriate contact tracing and communicating with families,” Ready said. She said much of the day was spent on the phone. Then the schools were deep-cleaned on Sunday.
Although all the kids are distanced at their desks and wearing masks at all times, everyone inside one classroom is considered a “close contact” and is now quarantined. A spokesperson for the district said that added up to 24 people in total between the two cases.
“Our students in close contact have shifted back to remote learning,” Ready said.
With COVID-19 still circulating in the community, handling positive cases will be a reality school districts need to deal with for some time to come.
“It drives home the point we aren’t out of the woods yet,” said Matt Matson, a parent in the Tahoma School District. “It was a little scary,” Matson said about getting the email.
“I was like, ‘oh no, are they going to shut down school again? Are we going back to remote?’” said Becca Waldroup, another parent in the district.
But with the precautions in place, schools do not need to shut down entirely when there is a positive case detected. Students are kept within their “bubbles” of their peers and teacher. The classes are pared down to smaller sizes — no more than 15 per class, though some are as small as 6 students.
“We haven’t had any transmissions within any of our buildings,” Ready said. “That was an unknown early on, and now we know the protocols we do have are working and keeping everyone safe,” she said.
“I fully trust they have a handle on what they’re doing,” Waldroup said.
It’s also clear how much the kids — and their parents — love being back in the classroom.
“I was missing my teacher and I really wanted to go back in school,” said 5-year-old Isaac Waldroup. “Having so much fun,” he said.
He said during his two-and-a-half hours of class today, some of it was spent learning math.
“It’s easier than being on the computer,” Isaac said.
“They are excited, teachers are excited. And when I did some walkthroughs last week, my heart is so happy to see them here,” Principal Ready said.
The cases will not impact Tahoma School District’s continued plans to reopen; older kids will start returning to school in two weeks.
Cox Media Group
