North Olympic Peninsula health officers met virtually with school district superintendents Tuesday to review plans to reopen schools — and keep them open — in the 2020-21 academic year.
One new case of COVID-19 was reported in Clallam County on Tuesday, bringing the Peninsula region’s confirmed case total to 159 since March.
“This one is locally contracted, not known to be related to our recent cases,” said Dr. Allison Unthank, Clallam County health officer.
Clallam County had 105 cases of COVID-19 as of Tuesday while Jefferson County’s case count held steady at 54.
“We’re slowing down,” Unthank said in a Tuesday interview.
“If you look at our curve, we are actually flattening it. So that’s a great start.”
Health officers in both counties say low levels of community transmission will be vital to keeping schools, which closed in March, open in the fall.
“In a sense, this challenge is for the entire community,” said Dr. Tom Locke, Jefferson County health officer.
“Everybody needs to pull together to keep transmission as low as possible, which means not doing a lot of things that people want to be doing.
“Parties and travel and visitors and all of these things that we’ve come to accept as a normal way of living, right now those are causing transmission of COVID-19 in the community,” Locke added.
Each school district must adopt one of three models for September: fully reopen with in-person learning, stay closed and provide remote learning or a “hybrid” model with part-time brick-and-mortar schooling and part-time online instruction.
Students who attend classes will be required to wear masks, pass daily health checks and adhere to 6-foot physical distancing requirements.
“Each of the school districts is doing something a little different, kind of customized to what they feel are the needs of their students and what is most acceptable to parents and what the teachers are most supportive of,” Locke said.
“It’s a very complicated decision for the schools to make,” he added.
“From my perspective and the health department’s perspective, we’re not pushing or advocating a particular model. We’re kind of there to support them in whatever choices they make.”
Unthank said that, given the low levels of COVID-19 transmission in Clallam County, it would be safe to reopen schools with stringent physical-distancing measures in place.
“I think each district is looking at how to meet those guidelines in a way that best serves their students,” Unthank said.
“In some school districts, that’s looking like prioritizing your high-risk kids who really need that in-person learning first and then expanding out to more kids from there.
“Other school districts are prioritizing their youngest learners, so their elementary-aged kids,” she added.
“But it looks like the way to meet those guidelines is really up to the school districts.”
Coronavirus guidance for schools comes from the state Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction and the state Department of Health.
Unthank serves on a state task force that is developing guidance for schools, Locke said.
“If we get multi-class outbreaks in schools, we really are going to have to close the schools for several weeks just to break the transmission cycle,” Locke said.
“If we can avoid doing that, I would count that as a success.”
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at rollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
