Harwood schools adjust as COVID-19 impacts grow

January 5, 2022 | By Lisa Scagliotti

Just back in session this week after the holiday break as thousands of new COVID-19 cases have been reported in Vermont in recent days, local school officials have announced several changes to virus-related protocols effective immediately. 

In a memo issued late Tuesday afternoon, Harwood Unified Union School District leaders said spectators will not be allowed at sports events starting today, Jan. 5. 

In addition, school officials outlined a number of other important updates: 

• Contact tracing messages have shifted from phone calls to email messages to alert those who were in close contact with someone who has tested positive while in school.

• The district will still keep up public announcements of confirmed cases while contagious at school, but will aim to group multiple notifications into emails sent to families and staff across the district. 

• While state guidance is being updated regarding testing and quarantine for school cases, the district this week has suspended its Test to Stay program. That is where unvaccinated students are given rapid COVID-19 tests daily after being exposed to someone who is positive for the virus. As long as they test negative, those students may keep attending school. The school memo said given the volume of cases expected in the coming days, the district would not have capacity to conduct these tests. 

The changes were made as school officials work “to understand how to meet the shifting landscape of this pandemic.” The bulletin came from Superintendent Brigid Nease along with COVID-19 response coordinators Kaiya Korb, Waitsfield Elementary principal, and Brookside Primary School Nurse Allison Conyers.

District officials continue to encourage parents to have their students receive COVID-19 booster shots. Those age 16 and older who were vaccinated more than six months ago are eligible. In addition, federal approval is expected in the coming days for boosters for adolescents ages 12-15. The first two doses of the Pfizer vaccine are available for children ages 5 and up. 

State and federal public health officials emphasize how those with booster vaccines who get infected have experienced milder illness than those who are unvaccinated or not boosted. 

Although the Test to Stay effort is on hold for now, voluntary surveillance PCR testing continues on Mondays and more than 800 students and staff tested this week, school officials said. 

So far as of late Wednesday afternoon, the district has reported 14 new COVID-19 cases this week, 6 on Tuesday and 8 on Wednesday: 6 at Harwood Union Middle/High School, 4 at Brookside Primary School, and two each at Moretown Elementary School and Crossett Brook Middle School. 

In December, the district logged 36 cases; the total for the year to date now stands at 79, based on school announcements.

Korb noted that contact tracing information will not disclose who has tested positive in specific instances. “Remember that we are all at risk of getting this virus. These ‘COVID-19 cases’ are our friends and family, and we need to be understanding and supportive,” Korb wrote in the latest announcement. “People with COVID-19 often experience uncomfortable symptoms and emotional stress. Instead of participating in speculation or gossip, offer to help community members who are affected by quarantine. With creative action from all of us, we will get through this period of anxiety and disruption.”

Korb also emphasized that “sick employees and children will not return to work until they are healthy.”

At individual schools, staff are working to ensure that key COVID-19 safety steps are being followed and adjusted if needed. For example, this includes reinforcing the expectation that when masks need to be off (such as at lunch or snack time) students maintain a minimum of 3 feet of distance, the school memo noted.

Also, because school meals are free to all students this year, students home for quarantine purposes are still eligible to receive school meals. Parents need to sign up online and may pick up meals to take home. 

Adjusting as COVID-19 wave hits Vermont 

These steps are playing out against the backdrop of the most intense spread of the COVID-19 virus since the start of the pandemic in March 2020. 

In the past six days, nearly 5,400 new cases have been reported in Vermont and that included two days when testing centers were closed for the New Year’s holiday. The test positivity rate has climbed to 12.6%, roughly tripling since mid-December. 

The figures pertain mainly to testing done at state sites and likely do not include results from individuals doing home antigen tests. Although the state asks that people report their results from home tests, it’s not possible to know the extent to which people testing at home are sharing their results with the state.  

State officials have cautioned against focusing on case numbers given that those infected with the latest Omicron variant of the virus appear to be experiencing milder symptoms than those who had the Delta and earlier variants. 

They advise watching numbers for hospitalizations instead. In that case, the Health Department today reported 82 Vermonters in the hospital -- an increase of about 40% since Dec. 18. The number in intensive care, however, was 15 on Tuesday, down slightly from mid-December. 

Information on COVID-19 testing, vaccines, and state reporting data is online at healthvermont.org/covid-19.