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Three people in the Mountain View Whisman School District have tested positive for COVID-19 so far this week, including one student who tested positive on Wednesday, the first day of school, according to district officials.
The district’s case-tracking dashboard shows one student at Vargas Elementary School tested positive, along with one staff member at Graham Middle School and one staff member in the district office. No students or staff in close contact with the positive cases have been asked to quarantine.
The family of the student who tested positive at Vargas got the test results after school let out on Aug. 12, and notified the school right away, said district spokeswoman Shelly Hausman. The district sent notification letters to each family with kids in the class.
Unlike in the spring, when large groups of students had to quarantine and revert to distance learning, the rules have changed significantly this school year. Students who come in close contact with someone who tests positive for COVID-19 do not need to quarantine if they were wearing a mask, stay asymptomatic and get tested twice within the following 10 days.
The district defines close contact as anyone who spent more than 15 minutes within 6 feet of the infected person in an indoor setting. Those who come in close contact with someone who tests positive may not have to quarantine from school, but will still have to abstain from on-campus extracurricular activities.
While schools had previously created rigid student cohorts during spring 2021, those cohorts no longer exist, allowing students from different classrooms to commingle.
Students and staff who are exposed to the virus while not wearing a mask will still have the quarantine for 14 days under the new rules, but that two-week hiatus can be reduced if there are no symptoms and test results come back negative.
Though the school district is kicking off the year with three cases in the span of only a few days, Hausman said the district has numerous safety layers to prevent any outbreaks. Along with the mask mandate, the district is restricting on-campus visitors, upgraded classroom air filters and installed plexiglass shields at all student desks. The district requires daily health screenings, and anyone who develops symptoms is required to isolate immediately and get a COVID test.
So much of this pandemic is driven by the unprecedented testing of healthy people. The proper nomenclature for a healthy person who tests positive is “a healthy person.” The whole notion that merely testing positive means you’re some kind of “typhoid Mary” who is now a disease vector for the whole community just drives excessive fear. Can you imagine if we tested every kid for the flu and forced healthy kids who test positive to quarantine for 2 weeks?
This paragraph is incorrect:
“While schools had previously created rigid student cohorts so children did not need to wear masks indoors, the district is now mandating masks at all times and allowing students from different classrooms to commingle.”
Children wore masks indoors and outdoors at MVWSD last year unless there was a medical reason, which was incredibly rare. There were rigid cohorts AND strict mask wearing, etc. last year.
@Teacher
You’re correct! The paragraph has been fixed.