Astoria Superintendent Craig Hoppes stressed to parents on Thursday night that despite a rise in coronavirus cases among students and staff, the school district is dedicated to maintaining in-person learning.

Hoppes, who was accompanied by Margo Lalich, Clatsop County’s interim public health director, and Lisa McClean, the county’s immunization coordinator, hosted a virtual meeting for parents due to confusion around shifting virus protocols.

After a short presentation, Hoppes gave parents an opportunity to ask questions. Over 100 parents tuned in at the peak of the discussion. A similar meeting was held for Spanish-speaking families shortly after.

The school district has followed the Oregon Health Authority’s guidance from the start of the pandemic, Hoppes said. Many of the restrictions have changed over the last 20 months, including the isolation period being reduced from 10 days to five.

Throughout the meeting, an emphasis was placed on the school district doing what it can to avoid a complete return to remote learning.

“I can tell you that myself, I can tell you – I would guess 99.9% of the staff in the district – as well as the school board, are dedicated to in-person instruction,” Hoppes said. “We’re going to do everything we can to stay in person. We’re taking steps necessary to be able to do that.

“What it comes down to as a district, to be upfront and honest, is we need kids to stay home if they have symptoms and we need staff to stay home if they have symptoms.”

Virus cases surge

New virus cases, linked to the omicron variant, have surged across Oregon. Virus case numbers have jumped in schools in Clatsop County since students returned to classes after the holidays.

On an online dashboard, the Astoria School District has posted 19 positive or presumptive virus cases – 16 students and three staff – and 10 people in quarantine across all schools within the past week. The school district has recorded 63 virus cases this school year as of early Friday.

Last week, the Jewell School District sent home all kindergarten-through-third grade students due to three positive virus cases.

The Oregon Health Authority, in a weekly outbreak report that documents virus cases through late Sunday, disclosed six new virus cases at schools in the county.

All six cases were students. Two cases were from the Astoria School District, with one from Lewis and Clark Elementary School and one from Astoria High School.

One case was from Warrenton Grade School.

The final three cases were from the Seaside School District, with two from Seaside Middle School and one from Seaside High School.

One of the biggest struggles with the surge in new virus cases, Hoppes said, is having to find fill-ins for staff who have to isolate or quarantine.

A number of schools in Oregon have turned to remote learning, many due to the inability to find enough healthy staff.

“Our school districts in Clatsop County are doing very well relative to many, many districts,” Lalich said. “I’m commending all the staff, the superintendents and all of you who pay attention to the guidance and do the best you can with your kids.”

While the county’s school superintendents had expressed confidence this school year that the virus had not spread on school grounds, and exposures had mostly come from home and off-campus events, Hoppes took a different tone on Thursday.

“I’m not going to sit here and say it’s not spreading,” he said. “I don’t have a case rate. We could track that but on a daily basis, we’re spending anywhere from six to eight hours just contact tracing, and I haven’t gone back to look at the numbers. We do have some close contacts and we do have some spread, which we hadn’t seen prior to the break. It’s not great.”

McClean assured parents that positive cases among students are typically linked to off-campus activities, rather than from student-to-student contact in the classroom.

“I can also say, just not with definitive data, but a lot of our cases are household contacts, just by contact tracing every day,” Hoppes added.

Recognizing the challenge at schools, the Oregon Health Authority indicated the state would update its guidelines to lessen the burden of contact tracing.

The state said it would no longer consider masked contact in K-12 settings, including school buses, to be an exposure, regardless of distancing.

While many parents praised Hoppes and other school district administrators for their efforts in keeping students in classrooms, one parent pressed the superintendent on why the district is sticking to in-person learning as virus cases rise.

“There is a balance that the district is trying to find, and I spend a lot of time thinking about this,” Hoppes replied. “The balance is what is healthy and safe for students from a health standpoint, and the impact of students being in school, from an academic, as well as an emotional and mental health standpoint … We do have an online option for parents. But at this point, we think it’s advantageous … for kids to be in school. And we want to have kids remain in school.”

Other questions from parents included topics such as a potential vaccine mandate for students, natural immunity and the guidelines for students without booster shots.

McClean told parents that any vaccine mandate for students would not come down within the next year due to the lengthy process it would take.

Test-to-stay

As vaccines are now approved for children ages 5 and older, the school district has adjusted protocols and implemented a new strategy for how to manage exposures for unvaccinated students, referred to as “test-to-stay.”

Instead of having to immediately quarantine after being identified as a close contact to a virus case, unvaccinated students can now take measures to remain at school. The unvaccinated student must test negative twice within a seven-day period and be symptom-free to continue to attend classes.

“This has been a good protocol for us for the past week. We have been able to keep a lot of kids in school,” Hoppes said.

Hoppes applauded the community and Columbia Memorial Hospital for stepping up to assist with testing. The school district performed 40 to 50 tests this week alone, he said.

Regarding a question about the possibility of across-the-board virus testing for students, Hoppes said there are no plans to do so, and that testing all students would likely need to come from at-home tests.

Lalich said supply chain issues could complicate the delivery of at-home tests.