Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

School District implementing COVID test-to-stay plan

Starting Wednesday, some Clark County School District students and staff who are exposed to the coronavirus will have to consistently test negative to stay at school or work.

There’s a catch, though: the exposure must have happened at school.

Monica Cortez, CCSD’s assistant superintendent for the Student Services Division, told the School Board Thursday that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which promotes the test-to-stay strategy, is clear that it is focused on in-person classroom instruction.

The testing doesn’t apply to sports and after-school activities, or exposures outside the school setting.

“If my mother (tests) COVID-positive and then I’m exposed, I would not be qualified to do the test-to-stay because it’s an exposure outside the school setting,” Cortez said. “It is intended to hopefully alleviate some concerns about students attending school.”

Employees and students have 24 hours from learning of an at-school exposure to take a rapid test. If they test negative and have no symptoms, they can stay at school. They will test every other day for seven days and can keep coming to campus as long as the tests return negative for the week.

If they test positive, they go into isolation. If they decline to follow the testing regimen or miss a test day, they have to quarantine for five days. Students who are sent home will learn virtually from their regular teachers.

Cortez said the district is well stocked with rapid tests and has more on the way that she and the district’s chief nurse ordered last month.

The plan announcement came on the eve of a “pause” in instruction to deal with an extreme staffing shortage caused by the latest COVID-19 surge.

Classes are canceled today and on Tuesday. Monday is the Martin Luther King, Jr. Day holiday. School will resume, in-person, on Wednesday.

“Our goal is to stay open and not shift to distance education,” said School Board clerk Lola Brooks. “I know a lot of families are worried that this is a sign, but we are committed to trying to stay open and do it as safely as possible.”

The test-to-stay program, which administrators had already decided on and were presenting to the board for its information, came during a discussion on the district’s standing reopening plan. The reopening plan must be reviewed every six months.

Cortez acknowledged some district struggles, like the severely congested hotline for staff and parents to report a COVID exposure, infection or symptoms. The line can drop callers who have been on hold, sometimes for hours, when the phone system reaches maximum capacity.

She said about 8,400 parents have called since Saturday morning and 4,300 employees had submitted electronic forms and not all had been addressed. She said the backlog should be cleared out by Tuesday.

Support staffer Autumn Tampa, an interventionist who works with English learners, criticized the district’s pandemic protocols in general, which she said so far haven’t prevented kids from coming to school sick, staffers running out of sick leave, or snags in emocha, a daily symptom monitoring app for employees that can block them from coming to work if they might have COVID.

And she said the test-to-stay plan isn’t good enough — it should cover staff and students exposed anywhere.

“We need more,” Tampa said. “More, more, more.”

Bonuses approved

Trustees approved retention bonuses of up to $2,000 apiece for all full-time CCSD employees as a reward for their work during the pandemic.

The district will pay out the first $1,000 of the bonuses to all staff who were employed full-time as of Jan. 1, then the other $1,000 for those employed as of May 25. The trustees’ approval finalized a deal that district leadership reached after negotiating with all five of the district’s employee unions. Some part-timers may also qualify.

CCSD has set aside about $66 million in federal school relief funds to cover the bonuses.

Kenny Belknap, a social studies teacher at Liberty High School, said the bonuses are a way to support educators who have had to constantly adjust to pandemic-related challenges over the last two years.

“It’s long overdue that we start using the money from the federal government to address the issues we face as a district,” he said. “However, this bonus won't fix the morale issue we face here in Clark County School District. Educators don't feel safe in these buildings while omicron is surging, and the district has to do more in mitigation strategies.”

Belknap suggested that the district next use relief funds to buy N95 masks for staff and students as stronger protection than cloth masks against the now-prevalent, highly contagious omicron variant. He also said the district needs to react quicker to breakdowns in emocha.

“Every weekend cannot become an extended one,” he said.

The board approved the bonuses 6-0, with board member Lisa Guzman abstaining because she works for the Nevada State Education Association union.