Questions about quarantine raised at School Board meeting

As COVID-19 cases ticked up on Miami-Dade County Public Schools’ dashboard, so did concerns — and confusion.

Superintendent Alberto Carvalho on Wednesday evening addressed public and private consternation about quarantine procedures as the district topped 100 cases — after a 75% increase over the weekend — and two schools temporarily closed.

But a handful of parents and educators pushed back following Carvalho’s responses. School Board members still had lingering questions — some the Miami Herald has asked for weeks with no direct answer. Some called for transparent, clearly outlined guidelines to resolve “justifiable ambiguity.”

“Right now, we don’t have any guidelines,” said vice chair Steve Gallon. He said that people are justified in “creating” their own reasons why quarantine procedures are different from school to school. “Are we trying to reduce some of these ambiguities?”

Carvalho reiterated that the district’s COVID dashboard reflects self-reported employee cases, substantiated with proof of a positive test or doctor’s note, and student cases once they are confirmed by the Florida Department of Health. It can take days for the health department to confirm a student case, resulting in a lag, but Carvalho insisted that all school communities have been notified of cases on the same day.

“It does take a little bit of time,” Carvalho said, explaining why a family may get a call from a school to self-quarantine or to not report to school but not see the district’s dashboard updated.

Amanda Prieto, a Southwest Miami-Dade parent who recently founded a parent-advocacy group called MDCPS Parents, spoke at the board meeting during public comment.

She said she had heard about the opposite scenario: Some parents are finding out about cases from the dashboard or the health department’s report. “This causes a lack of confidence in the data being provided,” Prieto said.

The district’s dashboard also only reflects cases of students who attended school and excludes those learning online from home, explaining the discrepancy between the district’s dashboard to the health department’s dashboard. The school district has been counting cases since Oct. 5

On the topic of closing schools due to positive cases, Carvalho gave these examples:

He said that MAST Academy was shut down because infected individuals roamed through three classrooms, the cafeteria and restroom. At elementary schools, students and staff are usually confined to one classroom, decreasing the likelihood of a school wide shutdown. But at Coral

Park Elementary, the employee had “mobile, roving responsibilities,” he said.

Several questions have bubbled up about what siblings are to do if a student must quarantine due to possible exposure. The district recently said siblings are not automatically expected to quarantine.

Carvalho said that the number of quarantined individuals depends on case-by-case circumstances — for example, if the infected student was on a bus specific to one school, or if that bus serviced other schools. Another example he gave was if the student was involved in extracurricular activities. “Different circumstances lead to different outcomes,” he said.

Closing schools due to positive cases has exacerbated other existing problems in Miami-Dade’s public schools. Board members and the teacher’s union said they continue to receive reports of teachers pressured, or even bullied into, teaching in-person students and online students simultaneously, which is not allowed according to the agreement between the district and the United Teachers of Dade.

Board member Susie Castillo said she visited five schools where she saw a “majority of teachers” teaching online and in person simultaneously — dual modality. “I don’t think it’s completely out of choice,” she said. “I did get a comment from one of them that said, what other choice do they have because the students need to be educated.”

District staff, who are meeting Thursday with union leaders, agreed that teachers should not feel pressure and that conditions would improve in the second grading period, which begins Monday.

Carvalho said the issue of dual modality is more prevalent in specialty high schools, which have unique classes taught only by one teacher. He also said there were some high schools with “zero teachers teaching dual modality.”

Carvalho on Wednesday also announced that the district received 7,000 antigen COVID tests, which involve a nasal swab, but those kits must be shared with charter schools and private schools that receive Title I federal dollars.

Wednesday’s meeting was also the last for three board members who decided to not seek another term. Martin Karp, Susie Castillo and Larry Feldman each said their teary goodbyes and gave heartfelt thanks to district staff and constituents. Board members and Carvalho thanked them.

Karp was elected to the board in 2004, Castillo in 2012, and Feldman in

2008. Their successors will be decided in next month’s election.