Ms. Davis,
Thank you for the notice and welcome to the district. I am CC’ing Ms. Guy and the board because this is a policy matter.
I am a Ph.D. computer scientist. I work at LANL, though obviously I am speaking for myself here. I am not formally trained as an epidemiologist, but I worked in an epi group for five years and have published in the epidemiological scientific literature. Based on this expertise, during COVID, I am following the relevant science closely. I mention these qualifications because I want to emphasize that my concerns are based on professional expertise, rather than being the opinions of a random lay parent.
Before we get to my concerns, I do want to mention two things that are improved in your notice, compared to past LAPS communications:
1. Any general notice whatsoever regarding exposure.
2. Specifying what the exposure guidelines are, so they can be understood and critiqued. (However, I did observe that the quoted guidelines are from the CDC in non-educational settings, without the very significant K–12 exception from NMPED.)
The problem is that the CDC guideline is more or less bunk. It assumes a droplet model, when in fact COVID is airborne. This has been clearly established for well over a year (e.g.
ref,
ref,
ref). Why the CDC has been doing such a poor job, I don’t know, but LAPS should be following the best available science in developing its procedures, not following dysfunctional bureaucracies with unclear incentives.
Bottom line: In well-mixed indoor air, the distance does not matter much, and the notion that individuals outside 6 feet or 15 minutes aren’t exposed is simply false, doubly so under the more-contagious Delta variant.
This doesn’t even get into the bizarre exception for students in the NMPED guidelines, which is clearly written not to address any reality of how COVID works but rather to provide an excuse to not notify students and parents of exposure.
Also, the vaccination status of these teachers matters for parent decision-making; overall, vaccinated individuals are less contagious. (Aside, LAPS should have instituted a firm vaccination requirement for staff a long time ago.)
Now what’s going to happen is: the rumor mill that fills the persistent gap in LAPS communication will ensure it gets around who these teachers are, and parents will attempt to use this to figure actual exposure. This of course only applies to kids privileged enough to have well-connected parents, further exacerbating the socio-economic risk disparities for COVID.
My specific ask:
LAPS has access to some of the best epidemiologists in the world, across the canyon at LANL, many of them who have kids at LAPS. Use them! Frankly, LAPS should already have been well-engaged with these folks since January or February 2020. LAPS need not follow slow government agencies with weird incentives when amazing scientists are readily available to provide reality-based advice directly. I can even provide introductions; they are great people.
Thanks for your hard work on behalf of our kids.
Reid Priedhorsky
Barranca parent
Good Morning Barranca Families,
I am writing to let you know that we were informed today of a positive COVID case among the Barranca staff. The staff member had minimal close contact among staff or students.
Part of our protocol is to perform internal contact tracing and determine close contacts. A close contact is defined as someone who has been within 6 ft of a confirmed positive case for a cumulative total of 15 minutes over a 24 hour period. All close contacts have been notified. For more information about the process for determining close contacts, see the NM Public Education Department Covid-19 Toolkit.
As with all confirmed COVID cases among our staff and students, we followed NM Public Educ. Dept. protocols and reported the case to them immediately. The teacher is self-isolating at home, following our state’s COVID-Safe guidelines.
We are committed to keeping our school community safe and well-informed by communicating facts directly with you as quickly as possible. Please contact me if you have any questions at (505) 663-2732 or davine...@laschools.net
Covid Quick Links:
Sincerely,
Davine Jones
Principal
Barranca Mesa Elementary School
57 Loma Del Escolar St, Los Alamos, NM 87544
Los Alamos Public Schools
(505) 663-2730
davine...@laschools.net
