COVID at School: "It's Been Hard All Year"

Currently, one of the largest issues in the School District is the lack of staff available due to the increase in cases. The District released the following statement on their website: “Safely keeping our schools open for in-person learning as consistently as possible is essential for our students’ health and well-being. There will be times when we will need to temporarily shift schools to 100% virtual learning due to COVID-related staffing challenges.” Although nearly half of the School District schools have reverted to virtual learning, we will not have to worry about our school being closed in the immediate future. For a school in our district to close, the active case count must make up at least 10% of the school’s total number of staff and students. “Our total number is 1,251, and if we get to 125 active COVID cases in the school, we’ll hit the District’s threshold of 10%, and that automatically sends us into virtual for two weeks,” Mr. Gilken, the high school dean and English teacher, said in an interview last week. “For the year, we’ve had a total of 93 cases, but that includes two or three dozen cases from the fall. For example, the week of January 2nd, we had 34 active COVID cases.” This means that currently, despite many staff and student absences, Masterman is nowhere near closure, with our COVID cases only reaching about a quarter of the way to the 10% threshold. Outside of the threshold, there are no other plans to close Masterman. Mr. Gilken stated that “we are going to operate as we have been, which is short staffed and with a lot of students out, but it’s what we’re doing.”

To keep our COVID case count down, Masterman has been implementing a number of measures to try to keep students and staff safe, but these measures come with challenges for students and staff. Firstly, all classrooms must create and maintain seating charts for contact tracing purposes, so that if an individual contracts the coronavirus, those sitting around them can be alerted about possible exposure to COVID. Excessive movement throughout the classroom is also discouraged so that the seating chart can be maintained properly and that exposure from a possible COVID case can remain limited. “We’re doing our best to keep students distanced in classrooms, but that can only go so far since we have a school that’s overcrowded, and with thirty to thirty-three kids in a classroom, it’s tough,” Mr. Gilken explained. “We have been using a system where we have numbered seats at lunch, and we’ve also been reaching out to students to follow up on who they were near at lunch, because lunch is the most critical time for exposure.” Finally, it is mandatory that everyone inside the building wear a mask over their mouth and nose, and strongly recommended that masks like the N-95 or KN-95 are used, or that two masks are worn. The mask mandate has been causing a few issues, like restricting certain activities and causing communication issues in some classrooms. Mr. Gilken has also encountered slight problems with enforcing the mandate. “There are a handful of kids who I have to remind regularly to pull their mask above their nose.” But despite the problems these measures are causing, they have also been effective at keeping the amount of COVID cases down at Masterman.

Even if these protective measures fail and a student or staff member contracts the coronavirus, there is a District plan that must be followed to minimize exposure to others. “If you have a positive COVID test, you’re then quarantined for ten days. The first day of quarantine is either the day after your positive COVID test or the day after the onset of your first symptom. This is always determined by Ms. Shalayla, the school nurse, once you report those dates and symptoms to her, she will respond back with the date you may return to the building.” And although the CDC and CHOP have both changed their recommendation of quarantine length to five days, the School District does not plan to change from their ten days of quarantine unless the Philadelphia Health Department guidelines are modified.

While ten days may be a long time to be out of school, there are a number of ways that students and teachers can connect with their classroom from their homes. “What we’re asking teachers to do is not to assign any extra work for students at home, but on a regular basis, update their Google Classroom page with what was done in class, to facilitate those students who are at home quarantining to be able to do as much of the classwork as they possibly can,” Mr Gilken stated. And while teachers who are quarantining can post Google Classroom assignments, they still need to get a substitute teacher, which is getting increasingly more difficult. “It’s been hard all year, there’s a substitute shortage. I think a lot of teachers who are close to retirement are possibly thinking: ‘I’ll leave now for health and safety reasons,’ so there’s an excess of vacancies, and you combine that with the fact that fewer people are willing to put themselves in a school setting for safety reasons and concerns, we have been averaging anywhere between five and six uncovered teacher absences a day. For example, I’m covering a health class later today. I’ve had a coverage almost every day since we’ve been back from break.”

Although the coronavirus has hindered our learning environment in many ways, we are lucky to still be participating in in-school learning at Masterman. Districts in the region and across the nation closed down after the new year, and many are yet to return. Our high vaccination rate and protective measures have been helping to keep our case count low. And overall, the COVID situation appears to be improving. Both state and nationwide, the amount of new cases per day is lower than it was earlier in the month. If we keep obeying the protective measures and generally stay safe, our numbers will continue to decrease. “I feel safe in Masterman,” Mr. Gilken added. “There is some exposure happening, but I’m not concerned.”