MCLENNAN COUNTY, Texas — Midway Independent School District has planned and pivoted for months as the number of COVID-19 cases in Mclennan County go up and new TEA guidelines come out. Spokeswoman Traci Marlin shared Thursday some of the curveballs the district has faced so far and the lessons learned as a result.
"We're not really just launching school," Marlin said. "We are launching a whole new way of school that we have never experienced before."
Marlin said the school district was prepared for its first several COVID-19 cases as well as the ability to provide for student needs online. But in the first week, the district got its first curveball after it had to contact trace a for a student that tested positive after attending a large student-organized gathering.
"Contact tracing is huge. It is incredibly time-consuming," Marlin said. "All of our personnel have full-time jobs when that happens. It's this whole new world of a quick, responsive, immediate, 'Drop what you are doing and we need to do this now.'"
Marlin ISD was prepared to go over a student's schedule and trace back what classes they were in so they could quarantine a few students if needed. One of the first positive cases, however, required the school district to quarantine dozens of students at one time.
Marlin said staff had to immediately drop what they were doing to start to track down all the close contacts related to the person who tested positive. The process requires interviewing teachers and sometimes even families.
Fortunately, Marlin said the four other cases at the high school were not as challenging, even though some happened simultaneously.
"When we had three cases in one day, I think it was only like 15 to 20 quarantines related," Marlin said.
None of those cases originated from the virus spreading inside the school, Marlin said.
Marlin said another challenge when quarantining students was getting buy-in from the students themselves. Once a student is in quarantine, they are not supposed to interact with friends or extended family outside of school for 14 days, which is the incubation period for COVID-19.
Marlin said that's tough for kids to do. The school district did not want a student that needed to quarantine to feel like they were being punished.
"That's hard for healthy people to have the mindset of, 'I need to stay away when I feel just fine.' But it's because you are waiting on that incubation time for COVID," Marlin said.
The problem is compounded if there are multiple students that live in the same home. If one of those students catches COVID-19, the quarantine period for the other students lasts 14 days after the first student is confirmed to be recovered. If the student who tested positive takes 10 days to recover, the other students in the home could be quarantined a total of 24 days and would need to switch to the online learning option.
Parents also need to be aware that there are multiple options for students after they test positive for COVID-19. Students can wait for 10 days to pass and see if they are symptom-free or they can get tested twice, 24 hours apart, and can return if both tests come back negative.
With a school district having to keep an eye on so many factors at once, some parents may worry that an outbreak at the start of school is inevitable. When 6 News spoke to Education Service Center Region 12 on Thursday, Executive Director Jerry Maze said this may not be the case.
ESC Region 12 supports multiple school districts across 12 counties. Maze said some districts had already started in early August, but they have not seen an outbreak on any campus so far.
"Throughout the month of August, up until now, we've had 16 to 20 different school start dates," Maze said. "I'm happy to report, for those who started in early August and where the 14 day (COVID) incubation period has run out, we have not seen dramatic spikes."
Maze and Marlin both told 6 News the health of a school district is inevitably linked to the health of the community it's located in. Community spread cases will find their way into schools no matter what the schools plan for.
"The community has to stay healthy so that the school can have a shot at staying healthy," Maze said.
Maze said he does still expect to see a spike in COVID-19 cases once the last wave of schools brings students back to class, but as long as members of the surrounding community social distance, wear masks and wash their hands, it shouldn't result in an outbreak.
"When we go back to school we will see some increase, but the driver for community spread is located in the community," Maze said.
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