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Richard Skolnik
Jan 11, 2022, 1:07:38 PM1/11/22
to Public....@laschools.net, Richard Skolnik
January 11, 2022
Dear School Board:
I write in my personal capacity with comments about the LAPS approach to COVID.
First, let me express my considerable appreciation for much very good work that LAPS has done on COVID mitigation since the inception of the pandemic, despite facing enormous challenges in doing so.
Nonetheless, I want to address here both structural and technical gaps in the approach the Los Alamos Public Schools have taken to COVID.
I do so based on the presumption that we will be living with COVID for some time and must, therefore, have sound mechanisms in the LAPS for dealing with it in the short and longer run. I also do so based on the assumption that schools have traditionally focused on education and are not trained to deal with matters like COVID.
Structural Gaps
It is hard to imagine that a school system would expect a person to act as superintendent, do her job as deputy superintendent, and serve as the “COVID Coordinator” for the schools during a pandemic. Yet, this is what we are doing.
To compound this, neither the School Board nor LAPS staff have expertise in the technical matters related to managing COVID in our schools.
Moreover, school principals are spending an exceptional amount of their time managing COVID-related matters.
In addition, there is no formal and empowered mechanism to ensure that the LAPS gets sound technical inputs for its work locally, beyond those from NMPED, which are distant.
Technical Gaps
The measures principals outlined recently are generally sound. However, in three areas, they need refinement:
The schools have not gone far enough to keep visitors out and stop in person meetings on school grounds. LAPS needs to categorically state that no volunteers will be involved in school activities unless absolutely essential. In addition, no physical meetings on campus of groups like the PTOs should be allowed until further notice.
Evidence suggests that spacing students in cafeterias does little to reduce risk. Eating in classrooms and eating outside should be the default unless it is not possible for space or weather reasons.
Time without masks should be minimized. Food in the classrooms apart from snacks and lunch should not be allowed unless they are packaged to take home. This is not an issue of food hygiene. It is an issue of reducing aerosol transmission of the virus.
HEPA-based air purifiers are not yet in our schools. Yet, they are an important way to reduce risk, beyond that offered by the HVAC system, as NMPED noted in its November 14 update to the Toolkit. It is my understanding that the County indicated in October 2021 that it had federal funds and would purchase air purifiers for LAPS. It is now 4 months later and the air purifiers are still not in the schools, as we face cold weather, students indoors, and Omicron.
Next Steps
The reasons for growing numbers of infections from Omicron are complex and I repeat my appreciation for the extensive good work the LAPS has done to date on mitigation. However, it is time to urgently address gaps in the mitigation program to deal more effectively and more efficiently with the near and medium run issues associated with the pandemic:
• Address the technical gaps noted above
• Get air purifiers into the schools with extreme urgency
• Create a formal and empowered mechanism to advise the LAPS on a regular and continuous basis on its COVID mitigation efforts.
• Urgently put a COVID Coordinator, who has the needed training, skills, and experience at the disposal of the superintendent. This person would be the point person for COVID-related issues for and help the LAPS deal with substantive and administrative matters on COVID. In doing so, they could also help reduce the administrative burden of COVID on school principals.
Dear School Board:
I write in my personal capacity with comments about the LAPS approach to COVID.
First, let me express my considerable appreciation for much very good work that LAPS has done on COVID mitigation since the inception of the pandemic, despite facing enormous challenges in doing so.
Nonetheless, I want to address here both structural and technical gaps in the approach the Los Alamos Public Schools have taken to COVID.
I do so based on the presumption that we will be living with COVID for some time and must, therefore, have sound mechanisms in the LAPS for dealing with it in the short and longer run. I also do so based on the assumption that schools have traditionally focused on education and are not trained to deal with matters like COVID.
Structural Gaps
It is hard to imagine that a school system would expect a person to act as superintendent, do her job as deputy superintendent, and serve as the “COVID Coordinator” for the schools during a pandemic. Yet, this is what we are doing.
To compound this, neither the School Board nor LAPS staff have expertise in the technical matters related to managing COVID in our schools.
Moreover, school principals are spending an exceptional amount of their time managing COVID-related matters.
In addition, there is no formal and empowered mechanism to ensure that the LAPS gets sound technical inputs for its work locally, beyond those from NMPED, which are distant.
Technical Gaps
The measures principals outlined recently are generally sound. However, in three areas, they need refinement:
The schools have not gone far enough to keep visitors out and stop in person meetings on school grounds. LAPS needs to categorically state that no volunteers will be involved in school activities unless absolutely essential. In addition, no physical meetings on campus of groups like the PTOs should be allowed until further notice.
Evidence suggests that spacing students in cafeterias does little to reduce risk. Eating in classrooms and eating outside should be the default unless it is not possible for space or weather reasons.
Time without masks should be minimized. Food in the classrooms apart from snacks and lunch should not be allowed unless they are packaged to take home. This is not an issue of food hygiene. It is an issue of reducing aerosol transmission of the virus.
HEPA-based air purifiers are not yet in our schools. Yet, they are an important way to reduce risk, beyond that offered by the HVAC system, as NMPED noted in its November 14 update to the Toolkit. It is my understanding that the County indicated in October 2021 that it had federal funds and would purchase air purifiers for LAPS. It is now 4 months later and the air purifiers are still not in the schools, as we face cold weather, students indoors, and Omicron.
Next Steps
The reasons for growing numbers of infections from Omicron are complex and I repeat my appreciation for the extensive good work the LAPS has done to date on mitigation. However, it is time to urgently address gaps in the mitigation program to deal more effectively and more efficiently with the near and medium run issues associated with the pandemic:
• Address the technical gaps noted above
• Get air purifiers into the schools with extreme urgency
• Create a formal and empowered mechanism to advise the LAPS on a regular and continuous basis on its COVID mitigation efforts.
• Urgently put a COVID Coordinator, who has the needed training, skills, and experience at the disposal of the superintendent. This person would be the point person for COVID-related issues for and help the LAPS deal with substantive and administrative matters on COVID. In doing so, they could also help reduce the administrative burden of COVID on school principals.
Thank you for your attention to this important matter,
Richard Skolnik
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