CALIFORNIA — The Moniteau County R-1 School District’s latest amended COVID-19 guidelines were changed without input from the Moniteau County Health Center.
Earlier this month, the district’s Board of Education elected to adopt an addendum to its existing policies — risk levels denoting the transmission of COVID-19 within the school community, from green to red, modeled after the Cole County Health Department’s guidelines applicable to schools in the neighboring county.
The district’s other guidelines haven’t been replaced or removed, and protocols at each risk level allow for implementation of requisite PPE usage and quarantine if a close contact is identified.
The low-level spread outlined in the “green” category — 0-3 percent positive cases among the district’s population of 1,591 students and staff — most basically eliminates mandatory quarantines for close contacts in order to keep students at school in person.
However, the school board opted for the addendum while only consulting with other administrators from area schools, not their local public health authority, as defined by the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. The addendum was approved Nov. 10, and the Health Center was notified the same day. Health Center Administrator Andrea Kincaid then notified the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services.
DESE’s Missouri School COVID-19 Operating Guidance document, last updated Oct. 8, recommends a school should work with the public health authority in the community to set COVID-19 guidelines
A DESE representative said state officials have encouraged local school leaders and local health departments to work together to develop COVID-19 protocols that best meet the needs of their immediate community throughout the pandemic.
“As we have from the outset of the pandemic, the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education urges local school leaders to work in conjunction with their local health department to establish policies and protocols that best keep students and staff safe,” DESE Chief Communications Officer Mallory McGowin said. “Guidance issued from DESE and the Department of Health and Senior Services reiterates that collaboration and communication are key during these (challenging) times.”
District administrators approached the Health Center about adopting the recent addendum ahead of the school board’s October meeting and were met with a negative response regarding breaking from the county’s current guidance. The health center, for its part, noted this was because the officials said it would be best to get through the fall — a time during which COVID-19 spread spiked during 2020 — before considering any changes.
“I think, too, looking at our vaccination rate, looking at the full picture, I don’t think we were quite prepared to do that yet,” said Michelle Wilfong, Moniteau County Health Center communicable disease program coordinator.
The Health Center pair also noted the potential domino effect of other county school districts following suit is a concern. However, Moniteau County R-1 Superintendent Dwight Sanders said he doesn’t anticipate that happening given the differences between California’s schools and other smaller districts throughout Moniteau County.
Sanders and School Board President Derek VanLoo said the board has no plans to work with the Health Center for any future COVID-19-related changes to its guidelines moving forward. The board will, however, continue to follow the health center’s guidance as it relates to other issues of public health.
Representatives with the health center have voiced concerns that taking such steps without input from a public health authority could put the community at risk for a potential COVID-19 outbreak.
“I told them, we’re responsible for six districts — plus nursing homes and work places. So in the bigger picture, we have a lot of people to protect,” Kincaid said. “So if our largest school district does something totally against what we’ve implemented as a county, it’s kind of (alarming).”
VanLoo said: “I know that the health department’s main goal is to focus on the health of the child, and it’s primarily the physical health of the child, and as a school and as a school district and as school board members, we try to take in all of the aspects of health, whether that be mental, social, emotional.
“That’s a hard thing to balance, it really is, to try to put one aspect of health before another,” he said. “It was a big part of our discussion.”
There’s an impact — especially to elementary-age students — to being forced away from the “school atmosphere, VanLoo said.
Sanders and VanLoo also pointed to feedback from district patrons frustrated with their children being forced to quarantine as a factor in prompting the school board to seek an outside solution.
“I think our board does a really good job of listening to our patrons,” VanLoo said. “When the board comes together and we’re hearing similar stories from the community, we need to act upon those things. And it’s one thing when you hear one or two voices in the community. But when you start hearing it from the vast majority of the community, it’s time that you move your policy to agree with what they’re asking.”