District working on virus details

Communications remain spotty, board members say

Lorain City Schools is getting closer to a return of in-person classes. But novel coronavirus communications remain spotty, said members of the Lorain Schools board of education.

Lorain students likely will return to their schoolhouses divided into two groups, said CEO/ Superintendent Jeff Graham and Ross May, executive director of strategic planning, data and process. They spoke Nov. 9 as part of the school board’s regular meeting.

All will have classes with their teachers four days a week.

But they will alternate, so fewer students in each building have more room to maintain safe social distances. One group will be in school two days a week while the other learns from home.

Then the second group will be back in school when the first is using remote learning, they said.

The last debate is which days to have which groups; that could be decided as early as this week.

Lorain Schools will have video tours of model schools to show families and students the physical layout of the buildings and classrooms.

Another school district survey will be published, likely next week, for families to weigh in with their safety concerns about a return to the classrooms.

Graham has noted previous surveys found Lorain faculty and families were not comfortable allowing students to return due to the risks of COVID-19.

The next survey is crucial and the school leaders

hope to promote it to get close to 100 percent participation, May said.

Board members Mark Ballard, Bill Sturgill, Yvonne Johnson, Courtney Nazario and Timothy Williams had questions about the district communications to notify teachers, support staff, students and their families about positive tests for COVID-19.

Lorain Schools maintains an online data dashboard that showed as of Nov. 2, there were six students and eight staff members that had showed positive test results for COVID-19.

Lorain Schools had buildings shut down last week due to positive tests, a troubling development, Williams said. Graham acknowledged he has authority to close a school building, but Williams pressed the issue that someone made an executive call when that power was not delegated to them.

Some building principals have been forthcoming with information about COVID-19 tests, Nazario said.

The school officials discussed federal rules governing privacy about med

ical information.

They and Graham agreed it is appropriate to notify workers and families about positive test results, but the school district cannot reveal a specific teacher’s or student’s medical information. Williams emphasized it is reasonable for parents to be notified of a positive test result in a student, without revealing the student’s name.

But some of the COVID-19 information will be released on a need-toknow basis.

For example, school nurses will be notified when students test positive and the human resources department will notify principals if staff members are tested and found to have COVID-19.

Lorain County Public Health will trace contacts of people who test positive.

If students and faculty are following the health and safety protocols, there should be minimal risk of exposure even if a teacher or student tests positive, Graham said. That means in some instances people will not be notified about a positive test result, he said.

Williams noted it is not reasonable for second-grade students to detail who they were close to in school, and no one may know for sure the proximity of one person to another. Teachers would have a better awareness of what the day’s activities were, he said.

Graham and May thanked the board members for their questions. No one has been through this before, May said.

The school administrators have been thoughtful about the novel coronavirus pandemic precautions, Williams said. That allowed the board members to ask in-depth questions, he said.

Graham also thanked the community for voters approving the 23.85-mill renewal levy at the ballot box on Nov. 3.

In a time when the economy is struggling and there is uncertainty about the pandemic, voters had a lot of reasons to vote no, but they did not, Graham said.

He also thanked the district administrators and teachers who worked at the polls on election day. Voters were kind, supportive and caring their responses to the school workers, Graham said.