Orange School District sees uptick in COVID-19 cases; families to be kept updated – cleveland.com

PEPPER PIKE, Ohio — COVID-19 has reared its ugly head once again in the Orange City School District.

As a result of a recent uptick in COVID-19 cases, the district is increasing its communication to families on this topic, Superintendent Lynn Campbell told the Orange Board of Education Monday (May 9).

Campbell had not provided the board with a COVID-19 update in more than two months, since there were so few cases in the district.

On Feb. 28, the Orange School District dropped its face mask requirement for students and staff in kindergarten through grade 12. This change in protocol made the wearing of face masks optional on the district’s campus.

Now, the district’s COVID-19 dashboard — updated Tuesday (May 10) — indicates 56 active student cases and 12 active staff cases. Twenty-five of those student cases were at Orange High School, while 22 were at Moreland Hills Elementary School and nine at Brady Middle School.

“As I’ve said all along, we’re a representation of our community,” Campbell said. “Our community numbers, in looking at the ZIP codes (that the district draws from) and (Cuyahoga) County, are about where we were the first week of February in number of new cases weekly.

“So with this uptick in cases, we’re increasing our communication to families. We’re reinstituting our daily building letter, saying there are so many cases in (each) building.

“For (pre-kindergarten) to grade five, where kids spend a large duration of their time with the same group, we’ll do classroom-level letters again.”

Campbell noted that the expectation for school districts to do contract tracing for COVID-19 was dropped in March by the Cuyahoga County Board of Health.

“There’s not even a process in place to share anything with the county anymore,” he said. “They’ve shut that system down.

“But we wanted to keep our (COVID-19) dashboard up to date, so you can see in an ongoing way what our number of cases are in each building and you can also see our cumulative cases.”

Campbell said the district is now working with the county board of health “to make sure that we’re doing what they need us to do.”

“Their CDI (communicable disease investigator) will contact us and work with us,” he said.

“We’re in a mask-optional environment right now, so the best thing we can give our parents is information, so families can make an informed decision” about whether to have students wear masks to school, he said.

Ca­mpbell said Cuyahoga County is still designated as low in COVID-19 transmissio­n level, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s guidelines.

“Their most recent guidance is pretty helpful,” he said. ­”It says when you’re at low community transmission, stay up to date on your vaccines and get tested.

“If we reach a medium level, if you’re at high risk of severe illness, you should talk to your healthcare provider whether or not you need to wear a mask or take other precautions.”

In addition, the district will “continue to up the expectations of our teachers,” Campbell said. That includes holding off on some group work and returning to more structured seating and as much distance as possible between students in classrooms, he said.

“In a lot of classrooms, that’s three feet,” he said. “In a handful of high school classrooms and elementary classrooms, that’s six feet.

“So we’ll do what we can distance-wise and get through these last few weeks of school and all these wonderful events in person (that are planned) for our kids.”

Board member Angela Arnold asked if informing families that wearing face masks is recommended, rather than merely optional, may be a good idea at this point.

“The CDC does that for us,” Campbell said. “I would say let’s not wait until we make it to a medium level of transmission.

“So if you’re on the fence at all and you have concerns, the CDC would say wear a mask, by all means. If you have known exposure (to COVID-19), you should wear a mask. So we’re going to remind people of that.

“These are things we’ve all known, but we got kind of spoiled. It got really low — zero (number of cases) for weeks in a row.”

Campbell said he has seen more people in the district wearing face masks lately.

“I think we’ll be seeing more masks, because our community is educated,” he said.

Campbell said the district recently received 184 new COVID-19 test kits from the Cuyahoga County Board of Health, “so we have a pretty good stock to finish up the year strong with testing.”

“I think we’re so close to the finish line,” board President Scott Bilsky said. “At the beginning of the year, we all kind of defined success as getting all students and staff through the year in person.

“So I’m hopeful that we’re not going to have to re-evaluate that protocol. My belief is anything we can do to get everybody through safely and successfully, let’s not leave any stones unturned here and get everybody through these (end-of-year) milestones.”

Concerns about field trip

Arnold also had questions related to the district’s upcoming educational field trip for eighth-graders to Washington D.C. Her daughter is among the students scheduled to make the trip.

“Given our current situation and we’re so close to Washington D.C., I’m thinking about what we would do if a kid tests positive (for COVID-19) on the trip,” she said. “Should I drop everything and drive to Washington and pick up my child?”

Brian Frank, principal of Brady Middle School, replied, “That’s what we’re asking for you to do.”

The eighth-graders leave for the trip May 31 and return June 2.

Arnold also asked whether a “COVID chaperone” could be made available if any students test positive while on the trip and need to come home.

“I’m just thinking about what can we do now to figure out transportation, just to plan for this happening,” she said.

Frank said if it’s close to the time when the buses are departing for home, a chaperone would stay behind and rent a car to drive home with the affected student or students.

“That’s what would have to happen,” he said. “We’re not going to leave the child alone.”

Board Vice President Jeffrey Leikin suggested booking an extra room at the hotel, if available, “in case you have to isolate somebody or some people, until they get picked up.”

Campbell agreed that was a good idea. He noted that the district had an isolation room designated in each building for that purpose.

“Maybe we could look at making that investment,” he said.

Arnold said it also may be a good idea to add more chaperones for the trip, just in case they are needed.

“Just assume that there are going to be kids who tested negative (for COVID-19) before they got on the bus and then a day later, they’re positive,” she said.

Trip to Denmark approved

In other action, the board approved a proposal for an Educational International Immersion trip to Denmark April 20-29, 2023, for Orange High School students.

The trip will be made at no cost to the district. Cost per student is $1,800 to $2,500, and students or parents pay their own way.

Orange High School students who will host a Danish student in October will participate, as part of the exchange program. It has not been determined yet how many students will take part.

According to the proposal, this is the eighth year of the collaboration between Orange Schools and Herning Gymnasium, an upper secondary education school in Herning, Denmark. But this will be the first time that Orange students will travel to Denmark since 2019 due to the coronavirus pandemic.

In Herning, the OHS students will be housed with Danish students’ families. They will also spend time in Copenhagen.

The goals of the trip, the proposal states, are to increase students’ global awareness and overall competencies and develop leadership and independent learning skills.

OHS International co-advisers William Brochak and Joanna McNally will be in charge of the students.

Resignation accepted

The board also accepted the resignation of Heather Moll, intervention specialist at Brady Middle School, effective Aug. 17.

The board’s next meeting will be at 6 p.m. May 23 at the Orange High School auditorium.

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