Nov. 10, 2020 3:00p; Updated at 7:20
(WGTD)---The Kenosha Unified School District is breaking ranks with the Kenosha County Division of Health, saying it won't abide by the department's "strong" recommendation to go all virtual from Thanksgiving week through the end of the year. Since the start of the school year, the district has given students the option of either in-person or remote learning.
In a letter signed by School Board President Tom Duncan and KUSD Superintendent Sue Savaglio-Jarvis, the district suggests that it's been able to largely contain the virus, although some schools and classrooms have had to close temporarily. The letter was apparently emailed Tuesday afternoon to parents and staff members, but not widely distributed to the community as a whole.
During a meeting Tuesday afternoon with the county's health board, Division of Health Director Jen Freiheit conceded that no massive outbreaks have occurred within district buildings. But she's afraid that children could be acting as undetected, asymptomatic carriers that spread the disease beyond school walls. At the meeting, Freiheit noted a possible correlation between the start of school and the current surge.
On the other hand, the district's position appears to be that staff members are the ones mostly responsible for bringing the virus into school buildings, "Furthermore, a majority of the reported positives are staff members who have contracted the virus outside of our schools, which indicates that our comprehensive mitigation efforts are working to prevent spread within our buildings," the email said. The district offered no elaboration.
Up until this week, KUSD administration had acted like it was making COVID decisions hand-in-glove with the health department.
Freiheit pledged to continue working with all school districts, even those that don't abide by her recommendations. "We're still going to be good health partners with them. We're still going to help them through their COVID cases. We hold no judgement," she said.
The KUSD letter argues that handling outbreaks by continuing to close individual schools and classrooms when necessary is preferable to switching the entire district to virtual learning. "Even the few switches to all virtual learning (that) we have implemented have greatly affected our families as they search for alternate care during these brief closures," the email said.
Freiheit noted that the number of positive cases, deaths and hospitalizations are way up in Kenosha County, reflecting the statewide surge. The number of hospitalizations--64 on Tuesday--set a record. The county's three hospitals, she added, are not in any immediate danger of running out of beds.
Another troubling statistic: Between 83% and 91% of those who test positive in Kenosha County are not staying home, either once they get the results or while they await receipt.
Freiheit says state and local officials are struggling to secure enough testing resources. For example, the National Guard site at the Job Center on Monday exhausted its supply of 950 test kits by 3 p.m., even though they had secured 200 additional tests.
The department is so inundated with positives that it now relies on people who've been infected to inform their own close contacts that they may have been exposed.
As bad as they are now, Freiheit thinks things are going to get worse after the upcoming holidays.
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