The Perry County District No. 32 School Board of Education got its first comprehensive look at numbers to associate with COVID-19 on campus at its meeting on Oct.6.
The district hired COVID-19 data trackers to monitor the school this year to give accurate numbers to how students and staff have been affected in the district. COVID-19 contact tracer Jennifer Bauwens presented the numbers to the board.
“The objective is to find out where we are as a district,” Bauwens said. “Then we can identify how best to move forward.”
The data totals were from June through September of this year. Bauwens noted there were 180 positive cases between students and staff in that time period which is the equivalent to 0.071 percent of the district population.
Out of those 180 positive cases, there were 1,135 close contacts, which equates to about six close contacts per positive case. However, out of those close contacts there were 32 conversions, or students who tested positive within the 14-day window after being exposed at school.
“We want to look at that objective data and see what we can do to help our mitigating procedures here in the district,” Bauwens said. “That is the question. How can we best use this data? We want to look at specific numbers possibly within buildings and see where these exposures are happening.”
The high school had the most positive cases in that time frame with 65 positive cases and the middle school was next with 55 students and staff who tested positive. The elementary school had 28 and the Primary Center had another 19 cases. All those numbers made sense to the board and especially Superintendent Andy Comstock.
“The high school and middle school students are the ones who move around the most,” Comstock sad. “They move from room to room, so it makes sense that those buildings should have more cases. It also proves to some degree that our cohorting in the other schools is working.”
Bauwens agreed with that statement as well.