Hundreds quarantined after students return to buildings
Hundreds of Upper Arlington and Westerville students have had to quarantine after both school districts switched back to all in-person learning this month.
Upper Arlington City Schools had 446 student and staff members in quarantine on March 11, according to the district's COVID-19 dashboard.
“After several weeks of seeing a reduction of cases in our schools, we're starting to see more cases,” Upper Arlington Superintendent Paul Imhoff said in a family update Friday. “And, of course, in the all-in model, that is going to impact more students due to quarantine guidance. The reality is that the pandemic isn't over yet.”
The district is on spring break this week.
Upper Arlington and Westerville were the first two Franklin County suburban districts to go back to all-in person learning, but several others either returned this week or will be back before the end of the month.
Upper Arlington returned to all inperson learning on March 1 and reported 20 COVID-19 cases on March 11. Since the start of the school year, the district has had 153 student and 51 staff COVID-19 cases as of March 11, according to the Ohio Department of Health.
Westerville City Schools reported 289 student and seven staff quarantines from March 9 through Sunday,
district spokesman Greg Viebranz said in an email to The Dispatch.
“While the thoroughness of our contact tracing impacts those quarantine figures, our confirmed case rate after this first week is actually lower than other weeks when we were operating under a blended learning model,” Viebranz said in his email.
Westerville returned to all-in learning on March 8 and there were 12 confirmed cases of COVID-19 among students from March 9 through Sunday. The school district has had 451 student and 189 staff COVID-19 cases, according to the state health department.
COVID-19 is spreading in the community – not the district's schools, Viebranz said.
“We continue to see evidence that the mitigation strategies we have in place are effective,” he said. “We're excited to have students back in class for daily, in-person instruction and remain optimistic that we'll finish the year under this instructional model.”
In-person schooling can be safe, health researchers say, but it requires schools and their surrounding communities to commit to several public health precautions to prevent the spread of COVID-19, including mask wearing, social distancing and limiting indoor sports, among other measures.
Ohio schools have embraced the recommendations by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, but even those have changed as the pandemic has dragged on.
Ohio relaxed its quarantine recommendations for students exposed to COVID-19 in classrooms in January. Under the new guidelines, if both an infected student and a classmate were wearing masks in a classroom and maintained distance, the classmate doesn't have to quarantine as is in the past. The exception, however, doesn't apply to sports or other extracurricular activities.
The ideal distance between desks is 6 feet, but a minimum of 3 feet is acceptable, according to state health officials, who cite recommendations from the American Academy of Pediatrics. Less than 3 feet of spacing requires that quarantines must occur whenever there is exposure to the virus.
Students can be required to quarantine or be under a modified quarantine. A modified quarantine happens when a student was exposed to someone with COVID-19 less than six feet apart while wearing a mask. The student can still attend school but can't engage in extracurricular activities.
Of the 446 Upper Arlington students and staff who were quarantining, 93
were in a modified quarantine. In Westerville, 118 out of the 289 students were in a modified quarantine.
Seeing an increase in students quarantining is to expected as districts transition back to all in-person learning, said Scott Dimauro, president of the Ohio Education Association.
“Especially if you are not able to maintain 6 feet of physical distancing … you are going to see these quarantines that happen because when students are
close together, you have to exercise extra caution,” Dimauro said. “It's a reminder that we can't let our guard down.”
It is up to community members to stay vigilant, wear masks, social distance and avoid large gatherings, he added.
“We know that what happens in the community has direct impact on what happens in school,” he said.
Several other Franklin County districts,
including Dublin, Hilliard and Olentangy, went back to all-in person learning Monday, but those districts haven't updated their quarantine data since returning back to physical classrooms five days a week.
Dublin hopes to stay all-in for the rest of the school year, the district said in a note to families Friday.
“Dublin City Schools will continue to do everything possible to provide a safe learning and teaching environment for students and staff,” the district said. “However, it will take the efforts of our entire community to keep our students and staff safe.”
Hilliard Schools spokeswoman Stacie Raterman said the district thinks the relaxed quarantine recommendations for students will keep students in school.
Bexley is scheduled to go back all-in person learning Tuesday but the district isn't worried about a potential increase in quarantines.
“We are requiring permanent seating charts in our classrooms,” district spokesman Tyler Trill said in an email to The Dispatch. “This will help to quickly determine students who must quarantine under Ohio's school guidelines.”
Bexley is the first district in the county to require students to either double mask or wear a mask deemed by the CDC to be the equivalent of doublemasking. mhenry@dispatch.com @megankhenry