AV College will retain contact tracking, tracing assistance

LANCASTER — Antelope Valley College will continue to use a consultant to assist with COVID-19 contact tracking and tracing despite concerns raised by faculty members over the effectiveness of the services.

The consultant assists two AV College staff members.

AV College trustees voted 3-2, Monday night, with Michelle Harvey and Michael Rives dissenting, to continue the contract with consultant Victoria Beatty through Dec. 31. The cost is $75 per hour with an amount not to exceed $33,000. The funds are covered under federal CARES Act funds.

“The current regiment of contact

tracing is a chaotic mess,” Aurora Burd, president of the Antelope Valley College Federation of Teachers, said.

Burd added the quarantine notices are coming too late to be helpful. She estimated by the end of the 16-week semester, more than two-thirds of the class will be quarantined. She added there is no mechanism in place for faculty members to be notified.

“How are these contact tracers trained? What caseload is appropriate so that they can send out notifications in a timely manner?” Burd asked, adding extending the contract is not a suitable response to the current situation.

Faculty member Alex Schroer said half of her class was quarantined while the other half was not notified.

“There is not a lot of dialogue, (and) emails arrive late,” Schroer said. “There needs to be a system in place and this person, this system, doesn’t work.”

Board Clerk Barbara Gaines sought to table the contract until she could get more information.

AV College President Ed Knudson said the consultant is a retired faculty member from the college who is also a healthcare professional, In addition, the college is in the process of hiring two people to assist the consultant.

“There are limitations into how much we can notify certain people because of HIPAA violations and what LA County Health will allow us to disclose,” Knudson said. “And so we’re trying to follow that as quickly as we can. We are responding to it; we are hiring more people.”

Harvey said she hopes the college can get the two new employees on board as soon as possible.

“I’m hoping that by the time we return next month, that this problem is resolved; it could be better and I think we can all admit that,” Harvey said.

Board Vice President Steve Buffalo said LA County procedures are part of the problem. He added contact tracing and notifications are difficult.

“I think if you don’t do this you’ve taken a step back. I think you have to work toward solving the issue and getting it better,”Buffalo said. “It’s never going to be perfect.”

“If I am to believe that the contract tracer or tracing team is overwhelmed with cases, which what I’ve been told, then why isn’t that information reported to anyone at the college?” faculty member Jedidiah Lobos asked, adding it seems cases are being underreported.

Lobos added not only did his quarantine notice come a week late, but also the contact tracer acknowledged tracking the wrong student.

“Instead of just hiring more people who might do the job right, we need to hire people who know how to do the job,” Lobos said.

The Board also heard different opinions on testing and vaccine mandates.

Music professor David Newby praised AV College leadership for resisting a call for vaccine mandates.

“The call for mandates is based upon three false assumptions,” Newby said.

He said the COVID-19 vaccine is not safe, does not prevent COVID-19 transmission, and does not provide the only means of curbing the deadly virus.

“Thousands of COVID survivors treated with repurposed FDA-approved drugs can testify this is false,” Newby said.

Faculty member Tina McDermott talked about the technology problems with HyFlex blended educational model. She added she was told to decide between HyFlex and face-to-face instruction for the spring 2022.

“I would consider face-to-face if Antelope Valley College would implement a vaccine and/or testing mandate like so many other colleges,” McDermott said.

McDermott read a list of other colleges that have implemented vaccine mandates.

“Please implement mandatory vaccine and testing,” McDermott said. “We need that to keep us all safer, and to help us in a very serious way to move forward and out of this pandemic because all credible experts and evidence has pointed us to that way out and forward.”

Faculty member Cindy Hendrix urged the Board to initiate a vaccine mandate, noting the 148 or 151 positive cases of COVID-19 at the college.

“It’s difficult to get a clear picture of what’s going on on campus because of how the reports are put out,” Hendrix said.

Hendrix added several students told her they have been exposed to COVID-19, tested positive, or members of their family have. She has not received any official notification from the college.

“As educators and members of the Antelope Valley community, we should be leading the way with protocols in education regarding stopping the spread of this virus,” Hendrix said. “We can and must be better.”

Faculty member Mark McGovern said AV College is the only community college district in Los Angeles County that does not have a COVID-19 vaccine or testing requirement.

“I’m urging the Board to call a special session to implement, at a minimum, a vaccine or testing requirement for all students and employees,” McGovern said.

McGovern added the ZIP codes in the immediate vicinity of AV College all have vaccine rates below 45%, the lowest in Los Angeles County.

“We have a responsibility to our students, employees and community to provide a safe physical environment,” McGovern said.

Dr. Bassam Salameh, who teaches the infectious disease course at AV College, expressed concern about students who do not wear masks on campus.

“We need somebody to enforce this mask thing,” Salameh said.