Rivera says 'test and stay' proving its worth at town hall

Sep. 22—Marietta Schools Superintendent Grant Rivera told parents at a town hall on Tuesday night the district's new optional testing protocol aimed at keeping healthy students identified as close contacts with COVID-19 in schools was serving its purpose.

Test and stay keeping healthy kids in class, Rivera says

Rivera provided data to back up his talking points, noting that nearly every day the new "test and stay" procedure has been in place so far, almost all students participating had tested negative for COVID-19. The new protocol began Sept. 13, and allows those students and staff identified as close contacts to continue going to school in person, as long as they test negative for COVID-19 through a daily district-administered test for the days they would have been in quarantine.

The district requires students and staff who don't participate in the test and stay protocol and who are identified as close contacts to quarantine at home for at least seven days.

So far, Rivera said the protocol has kept in school buildings many students who otherwise would have had to learn from home and potentially face lost instructional time.

The four students who participated in the test and stay option on Sept. 13 tested negative, as did all eight on Sept. 14, all 11 on Sept. 15, 13 out of 14 on Sept. 16, all 15 on Sept. 17, 21 out of 24 on Sept. 20 and all 35 on Sept. 21, according to data provided at the town hall.

The district has also collected data for the reasons more of the families eligible for the test and stay protocol aren't taking advantage of it. Participation numbers in the protocol so far are as follows:

— Sept. 13: 35 eligible students, four tested (11.4%)

— Sept. 14: 24 eligible students, eight tested (33.3%)

— Sept. 15: 59 eligible students, 11 tested (18.6%)

— Sept. 16: 80 eligible students, 15 tested (17.5%)

— Sept. 17: 56 eligible students, 15 tested (26.8%)

— Sept. 20: 74 eligible students, 27 tested (36.5%)

— Sept. 21: 74 eligible students, 35 tested (47.3%)

Of the eligible families the district was able to reach in the first six days of testing to find out why they weren't participating in the protocol, Rivera said the most common answer was either that they weren't interested (24%) or that they were unaware of the new option (24%).

Another 20% said their student was already near or at the end of their regular quarantine procedure and would be presenting a negative test to the district soon. Another 20% said they chose not to sign up but "planned to do such in the future," while 8% had transportation challenges and 4% had time constraints, Rivera said.

"I want you all to know that we're genuinely trying to get to the root of, 'how do we keep as many kids in classrooms as possible?'" he said.

Marietta school board Chair Angela Orange and board member Jason Waters told the MDJ they supported the test and stay protocol, and agreed that the results from the first days of testing show it's proving its worth.

"I'm happy about test and stay. I think it gives parents an opportunity to not have their kids quarantined at home," Waters said. "You can see that we have low positivity rates from people that are quarantined, so to get that opportunity to come back to school."

Though she said the procedure was still experimental, Orange called the data from the test and stay approach "very encouraging."

"If a student is showing a negative test result, that means that they can be in school, in front of their teacher, learning in the best possible environment, which is face-to-face," she said.

District 'not there yet' on vaccination requirement for staff

On requiring vaccinations for staff, Rivera said his school district is not prepared, as some other districts in the country have already, to take that step.

"One, philosophically, I don't know that it's my place yet as an employer to tell ... staff what they should be putting inside their body. I think that's very different potentially than saying to a staff member, 'Wear a mask,'" he said, adding that the second reason is to avoid stoking the flames of the ongoing and widespread labor shortage. "Until (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) or (Georgia) Department of Public Health make it a requirement ... I'm sensitive to the fact that to do such would mean that we might potentially lose very talented, experienced teachers and other types of staff in our district."

For his part, Waters said he would never be in favor of a vaccine mandate in Marietta Schools.

"I think it's a personal choice," he said, adding his agreement with Rivera: "A mandate could cause us to lose good employees."

Orange also said she wouldn't be in favor of a mandate "at this point," but said the district should continue to strongly encourage vaccination.

Following news that Pfizer has reported safe and effective a low-dose COVID vaccine for ages 5-11 and has asked the U.S. Food & Drug Administration for approval for those ages, Rivera said he's watching for the approval "not just as a superintendent but as a father."

The FDA could give that approval in a matter of weeks, according to FDA officials' interviews with national media.

So far the district has provided 16 vaccination clinics for Marietta students, staff and families.

Orange said if the FDA gives authorization for use of vaccines in younger children, she hopes to see access to Marietta Schools vaccine clinics expanded to students of those ages, "if our families would be interested in something like that."

The district also provides COVID-19 testing for free at its Lemon Street campus for the Marietta Schools community, as well as specific Marietta and Cobb County government and community organization partners.

'Noncommittal about where we are with masks'

Rivera also said he believes, based on conversations with health experts, that the district and community are "on the back end of this surge."

While he said he wasn't convinced masks are the "savior" or "end-all-be-all," Rivera said he did observe a drop in virus transmission when the district implemented a mask mandate last month.

He said after the mask mandate began, the number of close contacts fell drastically, and the risk of students being within 6 feet of each other was likewise reduced.

Marietta implemented a mask mandate on Aug. 23, citing an increase in virus spread in schools. From the reporting period of Aug. 26 to Sept. 1, 61 students were positive for COVID. For the following period, Sept. 2 to Sept. 9, there were 32 student positives. Students cases also dropped slightly, to 30, in the period ending Sept. 16.

Rivera said the district will reassess the COVID-19 data and mask requirement early in October, when students have returned from fall break, to figure out when the district feels it's appropriate to end the mask mandate.

"I don't think we can live in masks in schools forever," he said, noting the added challenge of younger students not being able to see facial expressions in their reading and speech lessons.

Waters was likewise hopeful that students and staff could soon ditch masks, a move that Rivera said would be dependent on school and community spread.

"I can't wait to see what the numbers (look like) over the next two weeks," Waters said.

Meanwhile, Rivera said he'd heard from staff member after staff member that virtually any protocol put in place to prevent a transition back to all virtual school again is what they want.

Follow Thomas Hartwell on Twitter at twitter.com/MDJThomas.