Chico, Oroville school staff eligible for vaccinations

The CUSD plans to upgrade COVID-19 community dashboard

CHICO » School staff members from the Chico and Oroville school districts are part of the latest rollout of COVID-19 vaccinations.

About 1,500 employees with the Chico Unified School District were able to receive the vaccine on Wednesday, the district announced. Participation was voluntary.

“We are fortunate to be part of a collaborative community that prioritizes the health and safety of our schools,” said CUSD Superintendent Kelly Staley in a press release. “We have strong communication and partnerships with Butte County Public Health, the Butte County Office of Education and our local health care providers. I’d like to thank our staff, students and families for their dedication and commitment to maintaining a safe learning environment. It takes a strong community to support the education of students, and Chico is definitely strong and resilient.”

Employees of the Oroville Union High School District are scheduled to receive a vaccination from the Oroville Hospital as early as Thursday, said OUHSD Superintendent Corey Willenberg. Employees with the Oroville City Elementary School District can start receiving a vaccination Thursday as well.

New CUSD dashboard

The Chico Unified School District will soon be making changes to its COVID-19 community dashboard.

The current dashboard shows the total number of coronavirus cases within the district since the first week of school, Aug. 17, 2020.

The dashboard also shows case rates on a week-byweek basis.

However, the state’s guidance on determining whether or not a school can be open for in-person learning is based on the number of positive cases for a 14-day period. If five percent of a school’s population tests positive over the course of 14 days then the school must revert back to online learning.

The district plans to reconfigure its dashboard to show positive cases on a 14day basis, said Tina Keene, the director of State and Federal Programs for the district.

“Where we’re going with it is a little more indicative of where public health is moving with things,” Keene said.

As of Wednesday, a total of 126 students and 73 staff members have tested positive for COVID-19 since Aug. 17, 2020. The district moved from an online-only model to a modified traditional (a.m./p.m. model) on Oct. 19, 2020.

Keene said a date hasn’t been set for the new dashboard to go live since there may be more guidance coming out from the state.

So far, no school within CUSD has had to revert to online- only because of a high number of cases. Keene said there has only been one, possibly two cases that have spread within the classroom.

“We haven’t seen a huge number of (cases) that connect together. We attribute a lot of that to the immediate communication, and the ability to quarantine,” Keene said. “The biggest piece is the relationship that the schools have with the families. Our school nurses have been in close contact with folks. Families and staff have been great about communicating.”

If a positive case turns up in a classroom, the district’s protocol is to quarantine the “close contacts” for 10 days. A close contact is someone who’s been within six feet of the positive case for more than 15 minutes.

“As difficult as (the quarantining) is for folks, it seems to have helped with that situation,” Keene said.

Staff surveillance testing has also been conducted within CUSD to help with the early detection of positive cases, the district said.

Keene said it’s not certain yet if the number of students out quarantined will be added to the new dashboard. The number of students and staff at each campus, however, does fluctuate when students and staff are out quarantining and returning back to campus.