By Caroline Sellers
Nov. 30, 2021
Arkansascovid.com
Arkansas public school districts experienced a substantial decline in active COVID-19 cases for the month of November, with only 705 cases reported by the Arkansas Department of Health on Nov. 29.
The ADH reported an 860 decrease in active cases for the state’s public schools from Oct. 7 to Nov. 29. The report shows that Arkansas’s public schools had 1,565 active cases for both faculty and students on Oct. 7 and 705 active cases for Nov. 29.
The Nov. 29 ADH report also shows an increase in both faculty and student total COVID-19 cases from the month of October to November. The state’s public school districts had a 1,025 increase for total faculty cases from Oct. 7 to Nov. 29, according to the ADH report. The public school districts had a 4,955 increase for total student cases from Oct. 7 to Nov. 29, also according to the report.
Dr. Janice Warren, Assistant Superintendent for Equity and Pupil Services for the Pulaski County Special School District, says that the district follows COVID-19 policies religiously.
The Pulaski County Special School District currently ranks ninth in terms of cumulative COVID-19 cases for both faculty and students with 459 cases reported by the ADH on Nov. 29.
“Any adult who enters our buildings, whether it is staff, visitors, vendors, they have to answer our online portal which has our COVID questions that ask things like have you been exposed to anybody,” Warren said.
The Pulaski County Special School District requires students to wear masks and tries to maintain 6-foot social distancing whenever possible, Warren said.
“We do encourage vaccinations for children that are eligible. We have had vaccination clinics in our schools for those students. We have had them at all of our middle schools and all of our high schools, so we highly encourage them,” Warren said.
Warren also explained that the school district does not require faculty to be vaccinated but they do encourage it and have even put incentives in place. She said that faculty who have been vaccinated will receive a $200 incentive check.
Ouachita School District, a smaller district than the Pulaski County Special School District, also has used preventive measures, according to Dr. Lisa Kissire, the district’s Director of Curriculum and Instruction.
Dr. Kissire said that Ouachita School District had low active cases last year at both the elementary school and high school. She also explained that the district followed quarantine after exposure, wore masks at all times and maintained 6-foot social distancing when possible.
“Last year we would go to school Monday and Tuesday and then we would skip Wednesday which was a virtual day for us and we would fog the classrooms during that time. We would then go to school Thursday and Friday and fog again Friday afternoon,” Kissire said. “I think those things really helped us.”
Kissire said she believes the district has a low population of eligible children who have been vaccinated.
“We have a high percentage of faculty who have been vaccinated,” Kissire said. “But we are much lower, I would say, in the student population. We tried to do a vaccine clinic, we had one person that signed up.”
She explained that the school district wants to keep children in school if possible. One of the policies implemented to try and drive quarantine numbers down in the district is a four-day school week, according to Kissire. She said that students and faculty go to school Monday through Thursday and the classrooms are fogged Friday.
Another policy that was put in place to drive down quarantine numbers is that if two people are both masked and one person ends up testing positive for COVID-19, that other person does not have to quarantine unless symptoms arise, Kissire explained. She also explained that this policy would be risky if the majority of people in the district quarantining were getting sick, but that is not the case.
“We want to drive down those quarantine numbers and keep them in school and we can do that with masks. We have not gone that route yet but we have sent a letter to parents to say if this continues to be the trend, we are looking at a mask mandate to keep kids in school. Our number one goal is to educate them and to keep them healthy,” Kissire said.
