Manatee school district spent $100,000 on coronavirus prep. What else is being done?
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Doug Wagner, a deputy superintendent for the School District of Manatee County, joined Tuesday’s school board meeting via telephone.
Wagner was among eight people to update the school board on Manatee’s response to COVID-19, a respiratory illness caused by the novel coronavirus. He gave the update from home.
“I want to emphasize that Mr. Wagner is practicing good, healthy hygiene procedures here,” said Mike Barber, the district spokesman. “He’s not feeling well, and he did not come into work today.”
“We’re probably going to a see a lot more of that as we go through this,” he said.
Since the emergence of COVID-19, including two cases in Manatee County, health officials recommended that people stay home when sick. They also urged residents to wash their hands and to cough into their sleeves or tissues.
Protecting schools and busses from coronavirus
Wagner said the school district was doing its part by sanitizing buses and schools on a daily basis, while also equipping the schools with supplies. He said the district ordered hand sanitizer and dispensers, along with hand towels, soap, trash bags and disposable gloves.
Custodians are using a disinfectant called Avistat-D to clean “common touch areas,” such as doorknobs, handrails, keypads, tables, chairs, playgrounds and other surfaces. The cleaning and sanitizing will continue over spring break, Wagner said.
“Our team has developed a checklist and a tracking system to utilize, so we ensure we’ve done all that we can do,” he said.
In a follow-up interview after the meeting, Superintendent Cynthia Saunders said the district spent nearly $100,000 on supplies to combat the coronavirus.
“Thank goodness, because after that, school districts have not been able to get some of those supplies,” she said.
Tracking students absences
Saunders attended a meeting with Gov. Ron Desantis and state Surgeon General Scott Rivkees last week, after Florida announced its first COVID-19 cases.
One case involved a Manatee County man in his 60s — someone with no history of travel to high-risk countries.
“You could sense the concern, if they couldn’t get a handle on it quickly, how it could really spread and have an impact on the state,” Saunders said.
The school district takes guidance from the Florida Department of Education and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Both agencies recommend the use of an emergency plan, especially for infectious disease outbreaks, something Manatee already had in place, Saunders said.
“In Florida, you deal with hurricanes or the season every year, but this is a very specialized document,” the superintendent said.
Manatee denied a request for that document on Tuesday morning, citing exemptions related to security and emergency planning.
According to the CDC, schools should also contact the local health department if they notice a large increase in students and employees missing class due to respiratory illnesses.
The district, Saunders said, will begin honing its data after spring break, tracking the number of absences related to flu-like symptoms.
During its meeting on Tuesday evening, the school board also heard from Paul Damico, chief of safety and security for the school district. Damico said he keeps in touch with Steve Litschauer, the county’s emergency management chief.
“The emergency management department sends out regular situation reports,” Damico said. “They’re really good, really thorough, with updates in red. We get those every day.”
Damico also joins a conference call with the CDC each week, along with a daily call from the county health department.
“The health department calls me every morning at 8 o’clock and we get the update if there’s any concerns to any of our students or staff,” he said. “They’ve really been great on that, and I have a lot of questions. We’re actually in contact probably a few times a day.”
Will coronavirus close schools?
A handful of school districts throughout the United States have temporarily shut down, while Italy shuttered all of its schools in hopes of preventing further spread of the coronavirus.
Closing a school can hurt students’ education and burden parents who work during the day. At the meeting on Tuesday evening, school board member Charlie Kennedy asked when, if ever, the drastic move would be necessary.
“If we were to have a child with a confirmed case, what would your recommendation be to the district? A school closure. Would we have to monitor every student in the school?” Kennedy said, directing the question at Jennifer Bencie, the health officer for Manatee County’s health department.
In response, Bencie did not specify when her department would recommend a school closure or student monitoring. She instead described the process that follows a confirmed case of COVID-19, which starts with an interview of the afflicted person.
“We interview them, and then we find out who they’ve been in contact with, who they live with, and then start the investigation,” she said. “Persons are determined to be high, medium or low risk, and the protocols follow suit as it relates to what type of isolation, monitoring of temperature, all of that.”
If a school were to close, the district could loan computers or internet hotspots to students in need, according to Genelle Yost, the deputy superintendent of instruction.
Manatee would provide the instruction through a service called Schoology, she said during the meeting.
“We have the ability to place instruction in the hands of our students electronically,” Yost concluded.
Spring break poses new coronavirus challenges
Manatee students embark on spring break Monday, and district officials are recommending that families stay clear of high-risk travel.
Yost pointed to China, Iran, Italy and South Korea — countries identified by the CDC as having widespread transmission of COVID-19.
Students and employees would have to self-isolate for 14 days after returning from those countries, she said. According to the CDC, people who visited Japan or traveled on a cruise ship would be encouraged to monitor their health, limit interactions and immediately self-isolate if symptoms arose.
“Since it is practically impossible to have limited interactions with other individuals in a school, school bus, or school support site setting – the School District of Manatee County is applying that CDC directive to all students and employees of the district,” the district said in an email sent to families on Wednesday evening.
“Anyone associated with our school district who returns from a cruise MUST refrain from returning to school or work for 14 days after their return to the United States,” the email continued.
All district-sponsored travel to high-risk areas would be canceled, Yost said. Manatee would evaluate out-of-state travel sponsored by the district or its schools, including travel that was non-refundable for students and employees.
“We’re considering those on a case-by-case basis,” she said. “Parents have the right to make certain their students remain at home without any type of negative consequence.”
No air travel would be approved by the district or its schools, regardless of whether the trip was to another state or country. However, there was an exception for “emergency situations or mission-critical trips,” Yost said.
As of Tuesday evening, Manatee had yet to cancel any field trips within the county, and it was considering in-state travel on a case-by-case-basis.
“We are not authorizing any trips, for example, to Disney or any type of theme parks at this time, where there may be international visitors and large groups,” Yost said.
Keeping students and public informed about COVID-19
District leaders and county residents are eager to learn more about COVID-19, a virus with no approved treatments or vaccines.
School board members Scott Hopes and James Golden both made visits to the county health department, according to Bencie, the local health officer. Bencie said the department keeps Manatee schools apprised of any concerns, and she pointed to a hotline for anxious residents.
If residents believe they have COVID-19, they can reach the Manatee Health Line by calling 941-242-6649 between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. The Florida Department of Health also has a 24-7 hotline: 866-779-6121.
The school district is posting updates on its website, sharing health tips on its campuses and sending informational fliers home with students, according to Tuesday’s presentation.
Both the district and the county health department shared information in English and Spanish, and board member Golden asked if the information could be distributed in more languages. “Absolutely,” Bencie said.
“I’ve heard that we’ve got 22 languages that are spoken in this district, and I’m just wanting to make sure that we get as much dispersion of information as possible,” Golden continued.
Laura Campbell, the principal of Tara Elementary School, shared her experience with the COVID-19 response. Campbell said she convened a meeting with members of the school advisory council and the parent-teacher organization.
They discussed concerns and ways to ease fears. She said a nurse visited all of Tara Elementary’s classrooms to teach students about about hand-washing, safe coughing techniques and other prevention efforts, all while keeping their young age in mind.
“We wash our hands for more than 10 seconds,” Campbell said. “Sometimes that could mean 20 seconds where you sing the ABCs.”
She said common areas were cleaned, extra supplies were delivered to the campus and informational fliers were prepared. Campbell also noted that school attendance “remained constant.”
“We’re taking every precaution we can as a school district,” she said.
This story was originally published March 11, 2020 at 8:00 AM with the headline "Manatee school district spent $100,000 on coronavirus prep. What else is being done?."