22 students isolated for virus

227 students, 28 employees also quarantined at home after suspected contacts

An increasing number of new coronavirus cases in Larimer County has led to several quarantines within the Thompson School District.

As of Wednesday, there were 16 groups across nine schools under quarantine for a total of 227 students and 28 staff members. The district quarantines classes or cohor t groups, not entire schools.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention explains that quarantine means someone is asked to stay home, away from others, for 14 days after a suspected contact. Isolation, on the other hand, is for people who are sick or have tested positive; they are asked to stay away from others even in their own home, according to the CDC’S website.

Superintendent Marc Schaffer, in a communication to families posted

Wednesday on social media, noted the increasing number of quarantines within the district “especially over the last several days.” He explained that quarantines simply mean the system in place is working to prevent the spread of the virus throughout schools.

School of ficials work with the Larimer County Depar tment of Health and Environment, under Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment rules, to determine who needs to be quarantined and for how long, depending on the type of contacts

and dates of exposure. This is designed to remove the risk from the schools.

“There sometimes is a misconception that quarantine is bad, but it’s actually good because we are protecting students and staff from the risk of the virus,” explained Todd Piccone, the district’s chief operations officer.

“Just because quarantine is high, it doesn’t mean it’s unsafe. We’re protecting people from the spread.”

The district website features a page where residents can track the number of and specific classes under quarantine within Thompson schools, as well as the number of students and staff members who have tested positive for the virus. The webpage ( bit.ly/3kddifl) launched Sept. 28.

The information on the website is not cumulative; it just lists current cases and quarantines. A cumulative total since the start of the school year was not readily available Wednesday.

However, the most recent posting, on Wednesday, revealed that 22 students, or 0.15% of the district’s more than 12,000 in-person students, and eight staff members have tested positive for the virus and are currently isolated under public health orders. The employees account for 0.37% of the roughly 2,000 who work for the district.

Also as of Wednesday, 227 students and 28 staff members were quarantined, with some of those periods ending Wednesday and others lasting through Nov. 6. A total of 16 different groups across nine different schools were in quarantine as of Wednesday.

The largest quarantine reported was a sixth-grade cohor t at Lucile Er win Middle School, with 69 students and four staff members.

The smallest was one kindergartner who attends Monroe Elementar y School, who is under quarantine through Wednesday.

While the school district started out the school year fully remotely, students who opted for in-person instruction have returned to the classroom in waves over the past month. As of this week, all grade levels are back in school; elementary students are in class five days a week, and secondar y grades are on a twoday hybrid rotation.

Larimer County health officials, over the past month, have been reporting an increase in coronavirus cases across the community, most recently across all age groups.

Schaffer, in his message to families Wednesday, explained that some of those cases within the county “have directly impacted our schools, which has forced some of our students and staff to enter precautionary quarantines to help keep people safe.”

He noted that the district is “encouraged” that, even with increasing numbers of quarantines, the numbers of students and staff members who actually test positive remains low.

“This tells us that the system is working well overall,” Schaf fer said, “and that it will continue to be a valuable prevention tool as we move through the school year.”

Pamela Johnson: 970-699-5405, johnsonp@reporter-herald.com