The new school year is fast approaching, and area health officers are largely praising the plans in place for ConVal and Mascenic’s reopening, even as they acknowledge that no amount of contingencies can fully prevent the spread of COVID-19.
“In a perfect world, you’d be able to totally isolate everybody, make sure they never came in contact with someone who’s not part of the family, but that’s not realistic,” Peterborough Fire Chief and Health Officer Ed Walker said. Walker, who worked on ConVal’s plan, described it as a balancing act “between what you’d love to see with what is achievable.”
Walker lauded the “pods” system of the plan, where smaller groups of students stay together and limit their exposure to others, likening it to the way a family unit can isolate together.
Plans that build in CDC recommendations for reducing transmission can encourage people to follow the guidelines properly, Walker said. “You really need to quarantine for 14 days,” after traveling or interacting with new people, he said, and ConVal’s plan builds in those quarantines after every vacation, rather than putting people in a position where they have to lie or have to refrain from visiting friends and relatives, Walker said.
“For this plan to be successful, it’s going to start at home with the parents,” Antrim’s Health Officer and Fire Chief Marshall Gale said. Gale said, and that to keep community spread low, anyone in the household with a student needs to monitor themselves for signs and symptoms of COVID-19 as well as potential exposures, and follow CDC guidelines for self-quarantining when necessary. Without much guidance from the state, it was “quite a daunting task” for school districts to come up with a plan on their own, Gale said. “I think they did a pretty good job,” he said of ConVal’s committees. “With any mitigation plan, you do your best for all the case scenarios, but let’s be realistic: there are gonna be things that pop up, and we’re going to try our best to get through them when they happen,” he said.
“I’m in favor of it,” Bennington Health Officer John Kendall said of ConVal’s reopening plan, but spoke to the continued risk due to uncertainties about how COVID-19 spreads. He said he appreciated the opportunity for social interaction between students, but had lingering concerns that students, especially young children, could follow social distancing rules consistently.
In addition to her role as New Ipswich Health Officer, Kim Sheridan said she’s additionally considering Mascenic’s reopening plan as a parent, and a school nurse in the region. She echoed other officers in that the realistic goal is to control, rather than eliminate, COVID-19 cases, and noted the necessity of different plans for each community.
“There is no one size fits all between districts,” she said. Although Mascenic did their best to meet parents’ requests, ultimately, each family will have to make their own decision, Sheridan said. “There are no good choices, there’s just the best choice for your family,” she said. In-person schooling can fulfill social-emotional needs for kids, whereas problems associated with unsupervised children could grow if parents are forced to choose between going to work or watching their kids during remote learning, Sheridan said. Although children don’t seem to be at high risk for adverse symptoms, community members should still take precautions when coming in contact with more vulnerable people, she said. “If you’re going to somebody’s home with an elderly person or a newborn, it would make a lot of sense for both parties to wear masks,” she said.
Michael Borden is an EMT and serves as the Health Officer for Greenfield and Dublin. He recently sat down and went over the reopening plan with Colleen Roy, the principal of Greenfield Elementary School, where tents are going up to provide ample space for social distancing between students. Borden described the school plan as “the best thing we can do,” and said he agrees with students and faculty wearing masks when social distancing isn’t possible – not only for masks’ role in controlling the spread of germs, but as a physical reminder to the wearer to not touch their face and to wash their hands frequently. Borden said he also appreciates the periods of remote learning built in during high travel times of the year. “Until we come up with a vaccine that we know works, I think that this is really the only way to approach it safely.” Borden said he’d spoken to a lot of people who are opting to homeschool their kids, but noted the especially limited opportunities for socialization outside of school this year.
“I just don’t know how long we can continue to live in a total vacuum,” Borden said, even though reopening schools poses a public health gamble. Borden’s greatest concern continues to be an outbreak that overwhelms the region’s hospital capacity. Although he doesn’t believe the Monadnock region can completely avoid contracting more COVID-19 cases without a vaccine in place, he said he didn’t want to see residents “throw out all that effort” and start acting like everything is normal.
“We worked hard in all the towns… to get people to do things online,” he said. “It’s working… We need to continue to be diligent, to monitor our health.” He encouraged community members of all ages to take their temperatures often, and even monitor oxygen levels. Battery operated oxygen meters go for about $30 online, he said.
On Thursday, Governor Chris Sununu explained the state’s guidance for schools in the event of a COVID-19 outbreak. If there’s evidence that COVID-19 is being spread between clusters of positive cases, an outbreak would be declared, he said. Public health officials would make concessions if a class or a smaller group of students is adequate to establish a quarantine, he said.
Several town Health Officers interviewed had not reviewed their school district’s plans.