School Reopening

[Lauren Coupland]

Dr Steinhaus and School Board Members, 

I know that you are receiving a lot of input, I will try to keep this brief.  There are three logistical issues that I would like you to look into and consider.  

1. Surveillance testing

I am very concerned about the efficacy of the surveillance testing.  I request that you make public the type of tests used for this testing.  The Vault and Curative tests only have FDA Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for symptomatic individuals.  Under limitations on Vault's EUA, it states "Testing of saliva specimens is limited to patients with symptoms of COVID-19."  The Curative EUA limitations states "Testing of nasal swabs and oral fluid specimens is limited to symptomatic individuals within 14-days of COVID-19 symptom onset." The FDA has even issued a warning on the high risk of false negatives with Curative tests.   Many places including Colorado, have discontinued the use of Curative tests all together.  

  

Using these tests for surveillance testing will give a false sense of security.  Please commit to only using tests that have an FDA Emergency Use Authorization (EUA)  for testing asymptomatic individuals.  To use off-label tests with a high rate of false negatives would be the equivalent of security theater.  

 2. Substitutes

The packet states that the district currently has 54 substitute teachers available.  How many staff are currently out?  According to the LAPS Case Count document, in the last two weeks, 5 LAPS elementary teachers contracted covid.  How many other staff members have needed to quarantine due to close contact with those staff members?  

LAHS and LAMS have a combined staff size similar to the 5 elementary schools.  Do we anticipate having enough substitutes to cover 10+ staff members at a time quarantining after contracting Covid-19, and all the staff members who would be considered close contacts?  One recent staff case required many other teachers to quarantine.  If 3 times the number of staff diagnosed with Covid-19 need to be out to quarantine, it seems like that would quickly tax our substitute pool.  

We also need to consider how many staff members will need to quarantine due to their children returning home from out of state colleges for spring break and the end of the semester.  As we saw with Thanksgiving and Winter Break, the number was not insignificant.  Anticipating these scenarios now will prevent a scramble later on.  

3. Community Spread

While I am glad to see that locally our case numbers have been going down, I am concerned about what will happen with in person learning and sports for middle and high schoolers.  

On August 17th, the first day of very limited small groups, our average was .8 cases per 100k.  A little over a month later, when small groups were expanded for K-3, we had an average of 1.5 cases per 100k.  A month after that hybrid was opened to all elementary students, and our average was 3 cases per 100k.  Less than a month later hybrid shut down, our average cases had increased to 10 per 100k, and two weeks after that we had doubled to 19.5 per 100k.  

Obviously this did not occur in a vacuum, but every time that there were more staff and students in the school buildings, cases in the county went up.  Using ineffective surveillance tests will only increase asymptomatic spread.  We have now had several deaths in the county, and countless others who needed hospitalization, or who have long term effects.  So for every teenager who gets covid, has mild symptoms for 2-3 days and then feels fine - there are others like myself for whom it has been debilitating, requiring long term care that interferes with daily life.  Which of your friends, your neighbors, your staff are you willing to sacrifice to these long term effects?  

Thank you for your time,  

Lauren Coupland