Marblehead Schools Opt In To New Coronavirus State Test System
MARBLEHEAD, MA — Superintendent John Buckey told the Marblehead School Committee Thursday night that the district will enroll the in the state's new student and staff coronavirus testing system that will provide families free at-home weekly rapid tests and eliminate the current test-and-stay and contact-tracing practices at the schools.
Gov. Charlie Baker and Department of Elementary and Secondary Education Commissioner Jeffrey Riley on Tuesday unveiled the new system that dramatically shifts virus test responsibilities from schools to families as part of a "pivot" to the next stage of the pandemic.
Districts are being given the option of accepting the free at-home tests or keeping their current school-based testing protocols with the state recommending they switch to the new model. Districts that opt in to the new program are expected to start receiving tests for staff next week with student distribution expected to begin the week of Jan. 31.
"We are maintaining our pool testing and our symptomatic testing," Buckey told the School Committee Thursday night. "But I can see those phasing out — pool testing phasing out in particular — because our vaccination rates are so high."
Families that have previously enrolled in school pool testing will have to sign up for the new program as well. Families who do enroll in the new program are then asked to test their students once a week and report any positive test to the school, as well as keep the student home if that's the case.
(Also on Patch: MA Shifts Student Coronavirus Test Burden From Schools To Homes)
While the new system is intended to help lift responsibilities off school health offices that have been overburdened and understaffed for two years — especially on the heels of the omicron surge that proved as taxing as any point since students began to return to the classrooms in September 2020 — it has also raised concerns in some districts that have found a sense of security in having highly aggressive and vigilant testing protocols.
Under the new system, school nurses would be charged with identifying symptomatic cases within schools with the voluntary at-home testing being done largely on the honor system.
(Also on Patch: New MA COVID Guidance May Force Schools Into Tough Testing Call)
"It's sort of the next step as we move through this," Marblehead School Committee Chair Sarah Gold said. "Sort of putting that back into the families. As I've gotten a first-hand look over the past few weeks as everything has exploded (with omicron), we heard how much work it is for the nurses ... This is basically taking that piece away from the nurses so that they can focus on really removing the students who are sick at school."
Buckey said he and other superintendents were notified Monday night that new guidelines would be announced Tuesday morning and that they received few details of the system beyond the governor's news conference until a webinar was held Wednesday.
"It will not surprise you that the launch of the new testing program has not been smooth in the last day and a half," Buckey told the School Committee.
Revised DESE guidelines state "this new option is only available to districts and schools that continue symptomatic and/or pooled testing."
Buckey said the uncertainty of the initial rollout and enrollment is one reason why the district will maintain both pool and symptomatic testing — at least in the short term.
(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)
This article originally appeared on the Marblehead Patch
