Split Bend-La Pine School Board OKs return to lunchrooms, so quarantined students can return sooner

Vote was 5-2; spread-out return to cafeterias will help ease staff burden, return quarantined students after 5, not 10 days

BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) – The Bend-La Pine School Board wrestled for about 90 minutes Tuesday night with the details of a proposed major change in the school day, aimed at getting quarantined students back in classes after five days -- half the current time. In the end, they voted 5-2 to accept Superintendent Steve Cook’s recommendation.

Cook called the special meeting to propose dropping “Appendix A” from the district’s in-person instruction plan that details how to curb the risk of spreading COVID-19 and comply with federal and state guidelines, which has had student groups (“cohorts”) eating lunch in classrooms and other rooms around school buildings, rather than the traditional, problematic cafeteria crowds.

In coming weeks, to adopt the new, shorter state quarantine rules, many if not most students will be able to go back to the lunchrooms, but in smaller, more spread-out groupings, likely by one or two grade levels at a time in many schools.

A month ago, the Oregon Health Authority and Oregon Department of Education, following Centers for Disease Control changes, said school districts could bring students quarantined for a positive COVID-19 test or exposure to a case back to schools after five days, rather than 10 -- if they were asymptomatic (or improved) and if certain protocols are followed, including a well-fitted mask and -- here's the tricky part -- continued separation from other students for days 6-10.

That part is what kept Bend-La Pine from more quickly joining other districts who adapted the changes. Cook said such a proposal brought “pushback” from already hard-pressed school staff, as separating those returning students from the others would be an added burden, on top of the logistical, supervisory and custodial (clean-up) tasks added when students eat lunch in rooms spread out throughout the schools.

Cook said they decided against proposing other options, such as to bring the quarantined students back in isolated fashion after five days, with no other changes, or keep things as they are. “Quite frankly,” he said, “none (of the options) are perfect.”

At one point last week, Cook said, more than 1,100 district students (out of 18,400 total) were out of classes on quarantine or in isolation, meaning “thousands of days of lost instruction” that could be trimmed by adopting the state’s shorter quarantine rules.

The district's COVID-19 dashboard Tuesday showed nearly 500 positive cases among students as of Monday and 203 quarantined cases, with 31 staff testing positive and one more in quarantine.

But board member Amy Tatom said they have been receiving emails from worried parents of students who are “medically fragile,” either with compromised immune systems, or are living with at-risk family members, and “the vast majority are opposed to kids moving back into the cafeteria,” rather than continued eating meals outdoors, for example.

Cook noted that many of Oregon’s like-sized distance “are struggling to keep schools open.” And he did a knock on wood when he noted “we haven’t had a school closed yet,” thanks in large part to the efforts of staff to reduce the risk of the virus spreading at school.

Board member Shimiko Montgomery expressed concern about acting now, amid a major spread, and urged waiting on any major changes until after the projected peak of the Omicron variant in the next 2-3 weeks. “The protocols we have work,” said the mother of three young children. Cook noted that the new guidelines are “being implemented in schools across the country with much less mitigation than we’re doing.”

“Removing Appendix A doesn’t mean throwing out all mitigation strategies,” he said. “This (current) lunch plan was a local-control decision. I don’t think we have regrets right now, but we’re at a point where we can’t implement more without some relief from that …. demand we’re putting on our staff.” He later noted the days 6-10 returning students would be about 10 to 15 per school.

Board member Melissa Barnes Dholakia said the staff's shared details at the meeting had reassured her they were taking into consideration all the factors – “that’s their job.” She said they should “empower our team closest to the work to follow the guidelines in the ways that best work for their teams.”

Tatom wanted assurances for worried parents that “there’s always an outdoor eating option,” while Montgomery again said she couldn’t support such changes during a case surge.

After more discussion with staff about how specifics are being worked out at each school and grade level, board member Shirley Olson said she would “totally support” what the superintendent proposed: “If we need to change again, we can.”

And board member Janet Sarai Llerandi Gonzalez said, “It feels selfish for us to try to delineate so many different points, when we’re not the ones to implement or deal with the impact.” Still, she said the feedback she hears from students are from those “feeling unsafe on the lack of enforcement of some of the masks or distancing” guidelines.

District administrators assured the board that every effort would be made to accommodate parents’ concerns. Cook said, “We are committing to a separated space for those who might need those actions” – but he was wary of “over-committing” the schools to specifics they can work out.

Board member Marcus LeGrand joined the majority in support of removing the current district policy of lunches around the buildings, “as long as we have good plans” in place.