— Dr. James’ letter to school districts, submitted by Eric Webb, Orcas Schools Superintendent —
I am recommending that all San Juan County schools utilize distance learning as their delivery model this fall until the disease is better controlled in our state and nation. I realize that many of you have already reached this conclusion and are moving forward with specific plans for online learning.
While initially many schools were developing multiple tracks and planned to choose one of them, I believe most programs are now planning on putting all efforts into distance learning models. As we move through the fall we will see from the experience of others how in-person education fairs. So far there have been some very hard lessons with those starting out with that model. I think it is very reasonable to view reopening the schools over time and in a staged progressive manner similar to the Phases of reopening in Washington State as whole. With a firm foundation of distance learning moving into or backing away from a progressive opening will be possible with the least disruption if a third wave of severe disease emerges.
Plans that have a staged approach with distance learning as a foundation are more likely to be flexible and allow accommodation of community fluctuations in the number of cases.
While San Juan County has had few cases to date, that number could swing quickly in our small county, and it would take very few cases to shift us from a relatively positive situation to one that was far, far more concerning. While nothing about these decisions is easy or simple, here are the reasons that have led me to this difficult recommendation:
- We still know relatively little about the transmission of the disease in the school setting. Initial information from school districts already open across the United States is very concerning.
- It is unclear if children have resistance to the infection, or if they are infected but do not develop symptoms. In order to ensure the safety or our community, we must assume that children have infection patterns similar to adults until proven otherwise.
- It is now clear that between 30-40% of those infected do not show symptoms, but are just as infectious as those who do. It is my belief that these numbers apply to children as well. We also now know that most infections are transmitted with individuals are either asymptomatic or pre-symptomatic making this a very difficult disease to control without medications or a vaccine.
- -here is increasingly clear evidence that the illness may spread through aerosols, which means the disease may spread faster, easier, and farther than was first understood. This is especially concerning for buildings that have traditional HVAC systems without sophisticated air filtering capabilities.
- The high likelihood of infections increasing when in-person schooling resumes will inevitably be coupled with the practical and logistical challenges of schools quickly shifting from in-person to remote schooling until a vaccine is available for prevention of infection in the first place.
Even with the lower transmission rates and the excellent prevention efforts we have in San Juan County, cases will still likely occur in our schools should they reopen to in-person learning. As cases increase from
regional and national sources it is likely that opening schools could amplify cases and cause increased risks not just for school children, teachers and staff but the community in general where a significant number of people are very high risk. School-based transmission could create a third wave of infections that would be higher and longer than what we have seen so far.
Clearly schools provide important services to the community in addition to education. Children having a safe place during the day for single parents or when both parents work is a critical function. Those students whose needs are the greatest are most reliant on our schools for support. Nutrition support for young growing minds has become a core offering of schools. Socialization, while not formally a curriculum item is a very important part of the school setting particularly for younger children. And keeping a healthy body and mind through exercise has been very successfully provided by schools and has become another essential part of our educational system. While we may have to put off classroom education these additional functions should be evaluated and I strongly encourage schools to see if there are ways to provide these important functions in safe ways even without classroom activities being in session. This will require creativity and innovation. Each island is likely to find solutions for the unique populations and resources found in the very different environments each district finds itself.
As you know better than anyone, schools play a vital role in the lives of our students, our families, and our community. I fully support the efforts of schools and your partner organizations to find creative, thoughtful and out of the box ways to continue to provide as many of these services as you can. I look forward to ongoing conversations to help you offer all possible services as safely as possible. I encourage you to work with the other community service organization in finding a path forward in these difficult times. The prevention initiatives, food support programs, recreation agencies, service organizations and community foundations, all have a critical place in our communities, and especially during these unprecedented times.
We need to work together to meet the personal and learning needs of all children in a safe and supportive environment. Those children with high-needs will likely have to have some limited in person programs even in these times with proper protection measures to ensure their safety, their families and the safety of the service providers themselves
I understand that the proposed delaying in-person education compounds the challenges already faced by teachers, students and families in our community. These hardships and uncertainty make it more difficult in the short term but I believe provide the most realistic chance of a long-term solution to the challenges we face today.
We will continue to work with you to find the best scientific information to base policies on, to develop practical solutions, to provide detailed monitoring of disease activity and to continue to provide consultation to all levels of public and private education in our county. I will continue my weekly meetings with the superintendents in each public-school district and consultations with the private schools as needed. These are some of the most difficult times in my 40 years as a health officer in Washington
State. What I have found over those years is that working together we can always find practical, cooperative approaches to solving our problems as a community united by the drive to both educate our children and to keep them safe. I believe that by going slowly at the beginning we have the best chance of a sustainable advancement with steady progress toward times when we can all be back to doing the activities we love in the community we all share.
I know that each program will find the path the is right for the community you are in, I do believe a phased-in approach with all distance learning, followed when safe by a hybrid approach starting with the youngest
children first and then finally in school education for everyone. Each shift can be informed by the decreasing risks as we move forward. It is unlikely that we will have school back in full session resembling last fall until a vaccine is available and most people are protected. This could be as early as January.
While going back to full in-person instruction may not be the best idea right now, why not get creative here? Even if in-person instruction were done one or two days a week inside one of the two gymnasiums on half days. Alternate days and times. You have massive facilities in the islands where limited in-person instruction could be had. Camp Orkila, cafeteries, Orcas Center, gyms, grange, private facilities… heck even outdoors on good days. Supplement distance learning with some in-person instruction in large facilities or outdoors. Extreme times call for extreme measures, but lets make those measures creative so that the solutions work for working families and so that they work for the STUDENTS. Call it what it is: distance learning sucks. Why does it have to be all-or-nothing? Creative, safe solutions are out there – it just takes someone to go get it. Is OISD up to the task?
If we can’t reopen our schools this fall, I doubt any other Washington county should. Thanks in large part to Dr. James, San Juan County has among the lowest numbers for coronavirus cases in the state, and a positivity rating of just over 1 percent. A remarkable achievement — especially in view of all the mainland visitors this summer, some of whom were or are inevitably contagious.
What role could periodic (say, weekly?) testing of all registered students and faculty play in assessing the risks of phasing back towards (at least partial) in-person learning?
And if such testing were to be adopted, how much would it cost and from what source would the funding come?
New ideas for rapid testing that could be done at home daily are discussed in this video from the University of California at San Francisco Medical School: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ew2MEF4XX8w
It’s shameful that the island is so ready to pull the rug out from under our children’s education. Governor Inslee himself recommends that San Juan county should teach elementary schoolers in person and consider a hybrid model for older students that splits their time between in-person and remote instruction. Fear-mongering, and the resulting fear-based decisions rendered by Dr. James, is having a hugely detrimental effect on our children, families that need to work to live, and the local economy (see Orcas Athletics as an example). As well as giving the locals license to point fingers at “tourism” and mainlanders who are likely to “bring disease” (which is a lot like Donald Trump’s infamous speech from 2015).
You are on target D.L. Roth. It is now clear that tourism is the cause of cases in the islands. It is also clear that the islands still, after five months (five months!) into the pandemic, there has not been community transmission of the disease. Yet the recommendation continues to be largely “shelter in place” and keep the kids home. Dr. James’ recommendations may be doing more harm than good at this point when looking at all the unintended consequences. Hybrid model is a must right now for San Juan County. What Dr. James’ and OISD may not realize is that many parents are now circumventing this nonsense and going it alone with their own hybrid model via camps, tutors, and informal learning sessions to at least have some in-person learning. That presents some risks as it is not controlled. Better to have a controlled hybrid model via OISD in the many available large/ventillated facilities sitting vacant and/or outdoors! What happened to our ingenuity?
I meant to say tourism is NOT the cause of cases in the islands!
I would be interested to know a little more about the island cases. I assume there have been no deaths or surely these would have been noted. Age of patients, how many have made a full recovery, how severe were the symptoms, any ongoing medical conditions and what are they?
A great “Atlantic” magazine article that responds to Fred’s question about rapid testing is “The Plan That Could Give Us Our Lives Back”:
https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2020/08/how-to-test-every-american-for-covid-19-every-day/615217/
Written by two excellent technology writers, it compares the standard PCR testing with emerging antigen testing. While the latter is less accurate, it can be far more rapid, with hopes of paper-strip testing that costs $1 per test (instead of $100) and can be done at home or in schools, giving results in 15 minutes. Speed is of the essence in follow-on contact tracing. I was impressed by their arguments that antigen testing actually tested CONTAGIOUSNESS rather than whether or not a patient happens to be carrying the virus.
Maybe this is something we need to implement in San Juan County, to enable schools to reopen with the confidence that doing so won’t stimulate a new coronavirus outbreak.
I second Bob Thomas, let’s get to the truth.