Virus anxiety

yuhsd concerned that community is easing up on COVID-19 precautions, putting district at risk for a return to remote learning

Yuma Union High School District administrators fear the community is growing lax in following COVID-19 protocols and inciting an upswing in new cases. In a governing board study session Wednesday evening – the second held this school year – YUHSD Superintendent Gina Thompson expressed concern that Yuma County’s rising numbers will have a serious impact on students’ education.

YUHSD began the 20202021 school year as scheduled on Aug. 6 in a solely remote learning environment. After meeting the county-level benchmarks set for schools by the Arizona Department of Health Services (ADHS), the district eased into hybrid learning on Sept. 14 with the intention of resuming traditional in-person learning on all campuses when public health data

indicated it would be safe to do so.

However, according to Thompson, recent trends indicate that the district is at risk of reverting to remote learning if the numbers don’t curve downward again.

“The goal has always been to return to 100% in-person learning,” Thompson said “That is a county issue, not a Yuma Union High School District issue. The level of spread within the community is not controlled by Yuma Union High School District.”

Thompson added: “We had two weeks as a county in September when we were very close...to being able to look at potentially coming back to offering in-person learning (five days a week) for students. But behaviors in our county relaxed, and the lack of full care and attention to protocols caused a spike of COVID-19 in our county. We are closer to being back to fully remote learning than we are to fully opening.”

In October alone, so far, the Yuma County Public Health Services District has confirmed a total of 625 cases of COVID-19. By contrast in September, when YUHSD transitioned to hybrid learning, the Yuma County Public Health Services District confirmed a total of 420 cases.

Weekly case counts have been reporting upward of 100 since the week of Sept. 21-27; the week of Sept. 1418 was on the cusp with 98 cases reported.

“If, and I hope when, we are going to open, we are going to need to work together to slow and stop the spread of COVID-19,” Thompson said. “COVID-19 was not created in a school. COVID-19 is brought into schools because of behaviors and decisions outside of schools.”

YUHSD’s provision of a hybrid learning option is based on the ADHS’ county-level school benchmarks for “moderate transmission,” in which the area’s new cases must fall between 10 and 100 per 100,000 residents while both hospital visits for COVID-like illnesses and the overall positivity rate must fall between 5% and 10%.

If a county exceeds any of these thresholds, it falls into the “substantial transmission” category, in which remote or virtual learning with on-site support services becomes the state-recommended mode for delivering instruction.

According to the most recent information released by ADHS at www. azdhs.gov/covid19, Yuma County’s new case counts were sitting at 98 cases per 100,000 residents the week of Oct. 4. The area’s positivity rate was also walking the line that week at 9.3%.

Associate Superintendent Tim Brienza noted that until last week, the previous threshold for a county’s positivity rate was set at 7% to remain in hybrid learning; ADHS made the adjustment on Thursday.

“Luckily for us it was changed, because we have two weeks now (Sept. 27 and Oct. 4) where we’re above the old threshold of 7%,” he said. “We’re still in an environment where hybrid learning’s occurring and students are learning. We feel very safe and comfortable with students on our campus; however, as a community, we’re getting very close to having a tough decision to make.”

While hospital visits for COVID-like illnesses continue to remain below 2% in Yuma County, Brienza pointed out that the onset of flu season poses a potential uptick in that trend.

“As many scientists and doctors have pointed out, when the flu season hits, some of those symptoms are very similar to COVID – not that it is COVID, but they’re similar,” he said. “So this number may go up a little bit, but hopefully it will stay consistent. This is one area that we’ve been very low and consistent in.”

According to Thompson, in order to continue providing consistency in the way instruction is delivered to students, there needs to be collaboration between the district and the general community in “masking up” and practicing other safety measures.

“Times of crisis demand cooperation and collaboration from all if – not when – communities are to emerge intact,” Thompson said.