Another $2M set for virus testing in schools
Commissioners seek to boost confidence, help parents cope
Bexar County commissioners agreed to spend $2 million more to continue COVID-19 testing of students and teachers for the rest of this school year, primarily in eight public school districts, to foster confidence and help parents return to work.
“There's no substitute for a teacher, and there's no substitute for in-person instruction,” said Toni Thompson, associate superintendent of human resources for the San Antonio Independent School District, which has had over 133,000 tests done through the county program.
Commissioners initially committed $2 million in federal coronavirus aid in October for the private-public initiative to provide testing by Biobridge Global/community Labs in workplaces and the eight school districts, including SAISD, Edgewood ISD, East Central ISD and Harlandale ISD, among others.
School officials said the innovative testing program has children, teachers and staff members selfadministering a swab under the supervision of a proctor and has an average 19-hour turnaround for results. It has given teachers reassurance of a safe workplace and allowed more students to return to campus for in-person learning, helping parents get back to work, officials said.
Community Labs President Sal Webber said the nonprofit has administered more than 400,000 tests, including nearly 275,000 at more than 200 schools through the county program. The tests cost $35 each, about one-fifth the normal cost
in the commercial market, he said.
The testing at the schools so far has produced a low percentage of positive results, about 0.7 percent compared with about 7 percent of tests coming back positive for members of the general public that Community Labs has tested at the Alamodome through the city's Metro Health, he said.
Jeanne Russell, executive director at Centers for Applied Science & Technology, a network of schools in three districts, said the testing has been a game changer in Spanish-speaking neighborhoods where “there's so much fear about this disease that has ravaged our community.”
“We need to work with you to get these numbers out, to make people understand that their children are safe in schools, and that we're going to continue to screen to make sure that they stay safe,” Russell said.
Graham Weston, tech entrepreneur and Community Labs chairman, said the nonprofit formed last year “with the idea that we could have the safest group of schools in the country.” The noninvasive molecular test used at schools is as accurate as the “brain tickler” swab test, he said.
“The county was our first supporter, and we're so grateful,” Weston said. “We would love to keep the lab open and continue to do testing until it's no longer needed.”
The additional $2 million for the program will be transferred from undesignated funds, then replenished once the county receives federal money under the American Rescue Plan Act. The county anticipates getting $388.5 million through the rescue plan as part of a multiyear economic recovery effort.
Commissioners also voted to spend $250,000 to hire Guidehouse, a research firm that assists
local governments, to develop a COVID-19 response portfolio that would maximize revenue and qualifying federal reimbursements.
In other action Tuesday, commissioners met for about 30 minutes in executive session, then returned to open session to approve a $20,000 lawsuit settlement involving the April 18, 2019, death of Jack Ule, an inmate at the Bexar County Jail.
Ule, 63, was in jail under $500 bail on a charge of criminal trespass on private property. He had been in custody for two weeks when he was found unresponsive in his cell and died.
A lawsuit filed by Ule's brother against the county, Sheriff Javier Salazar and University Health alleged the defendants violated the Texas Constitution and Ule's federal due process and equal protection rights by confining him, subject to a cash bail, without making an adequate inquiry into his ability to pay; detaining him for a prolonged period; and providing inadequate medical care. Ule had a history of mental illness, hypertension and other medical problems, according to the lawsuit.
Commissioners also paid tribute to Judge Sarah E. Garrahanmoulder, a retired jurist who died March 26 at age 84.
Garrahan-moulder was part of the legal team that prosecuted the assassin of U.S. District Judge John H. Wood Jr. of San Antonio in the 1970s. She was elected in 1986 to serve as judge of Bexar County Court-at-law No. 4, a post she held until her 2014 retirement.
The Commissioners Court approved proposals from Garrahan-moulder's judicial colleagues to commission a portrait to hang in the courtroom where she presided, and to plant a tree near the Bexar County Justice Center in her memory.
Commissioners recalled Garrahan-moulder as a caring judge, sometimes dubbed as “Mama Garrahan,” who ran as a Republican but reached beyond political partisanship to foster progress. Commissioner Justin Rodriguez said he remembered as an inexperienced attorney that she wanted defendants properly represented, and gave many opportunities to young lawyers who were seeking cases through court appointments.
“She was just a big-hearted person,” Rodriguez said.