School Board votes to change quarantine rules

Following a school board meeting on Monday, September 13, board members have elected to no longer require students to quarantine after they’ve come in close contact with someone confirmed to have COVID at the school.

Now, if a student is exposed to someone with COVID the administration will only recommend that the student quarantine thus ultimately leaving the decision to the student and parent/guardian. This change will take effect on Wednesday,

This change will take effect on Wednesday, September 15, and the decision comes after a discussion during the board meeting on the effects that quarantining has on Cordell Schools’ students.

“Since the onset of COVID-19, quarantines have been a tool that we have used extensively and they are becoming problematic,” Cordell Schools Public Schools Superintendent Brad Overton said in a statement released on Tuesday. “The CPS Board of Education and I believe that these quarantines have become as detrimental to our students as the virus itself.”

Overton went on to cite loss of learning along with social and emotional stress as the detriments that students have faced due to quarantining, and saying that many of the students “return to school without completing any assigned school work and find themselves lacking motivation upon returning to school.”

This same point was brought up by school nurse Carol Garrison who was present during Monday’s meeting as she said that the mental health issues from quarantining are overlooked.

“I think quarantining is a really good tool in our arsenal to fight COVID, but I think something that we really need to keep in mind is that the mental health fallout from that is widely overlooked,” she said during the meeting. “We have an obligation to not only be concerned about the safety of our students but also about the equity. How are we educating these kids?”

Garrison, who worked as the Project Aware Community Manager at Elk City Public Schools, said that her data collection while there had twice as many students being referred to mental health services, and the direct correlation found was the isolation of students due to quarantine.

“If it was just up to me as an RN, I would say to you, I would beg you, please don’t stop quarantining. I think it’s important,” Garrison said. “But as a grandparent with schoolaged grandchildren, as someone who’s worked in the area of mental health, there is a tremendous negative impact on our students when we quarantine them for 14 days.”

Cordell Schools currently has 15 students and/or faculty members with active cases of COVID and 45 students currently quarantining. Those quarantine students who were doing so due to close contact exposure are now able to return to school.

To date, Cordell Schools have quarantined 174 students this school year and has had 47 total positive cases at the school with 18 of them at the junior high and high school and 29 at the elementary.

If exposed to COVID from a household family member where isolation was not possible, that student will still be required to quarantine.

Overton and the school board stressed the importance of in-person instruction during Monday’s meeting as well as the effects that quarantining had on students as well as parents such as financial hardships due to having to miss work to care for their quarantined child.

“In order to continue in-person learning we ask that parents monitor their child’s health status each day. Do not send your child to school if they are exhibiting any COVID symptoms i.e, fever, sore throat, cough, diarrhea or vomiting, new loss of taste or smell,” Overton said. “We will monitor students closely while they are at school and students will be sent home with any COVID type symptoms. If your child has been exposed we strongly recommend the use of a mask at school as you continue to monitor for potential symptoms.”

Ultimately, contract tracing and notifying parents will still be done for students who are in close contact with someone with COVID, and distance learning instruction will still be provided to those students who choose to quarantine though it is no longer a requirement under most circumstances.

“We hope that our community does not see this as giving into [sic] this terrible situation. Rest assured, we are not,” Overton said. “Looking at the big picture, we hope that this change in procedures keeps more of our students in school and learning. That is what we are all about!”