School Board alters COVID-19 approach

The Perry County School District No. 32 Board of Education changed the district’s approach to COVID-19 once again. CDC guidelines changed positive quarantine length from 10 days of home quarantine to five days of home quarantine followed by five days of masking if symptoms are re-solving on Dec. 27.
The district approved those standards at a special board meeting, but then in its regularly scheduled meeting on Jan. 12, they went one step further.
Parents of students and staff members are asked to self-report to the District No. 32 Covid coordi-nator, Rebecca Barker, when they have tested positive.
Positive individuals should stay home for five days after their positive test and continue to stay at home as long as they are symptomatic. If their symptoms are resolving, students may return to school while wearing a mask through day 10. Students and staff should not return to school until they have been fever-free for at least 24 hours without fever-reducing medication, even if that is longer than five days. Parents who do not want their children to wear a mask may choose to keep the student home during that period, which is a verified absence.
Students who may have been exposed to COVID-19 while at school will receive an automated message from the district to inform parents of the possible exposure. Families are asked to follow the most recent CDC guidance by monitoring for symptoms, masking for 10 days, etc. Students who may have been exposed to COVID-19 can attend classes and activities.
“It’s about as getting back to as normal as we have been in a long time,” Perry County District Superintendent Andy Comstock said. “We are still implementing as much as we can to make sure kids don’t get sick while at school.”
The Perry County Health Department stopped contacting close contacts and positive cases because of a lack of resources near the end of 2021, and with the new plan the only positive tests that the district will receive are those that are self-reported. Many other school districts in the area, such as Fredericktown have adopted the same plan once their local departments stopped contact tracing.

Comstock wants to make sure that parents are not overwhelmed with many messages, especially the high school students and parents who have eight different classes per day.
“There may be a positive case in each of those eight classes,” Comstock said. “What we want to do is create a spreadsheet of kids who have already been notified within a certain time period. We don’t want people to be getting messages every day because then they will stop answering. We want it to be a meaningful call.”
To follow up on the amended COVID-19 plan, COVID-19 data tracker Jennifer Bauwens noted that the district only had 15 additional positive cases since the meeting in December. However, for the past two months the district has not had any conversions, which means that no student who has been exposed to COVID-19 on campus has later tested positive. The last conversion was Nov. 5. As of January 10, there were four active cases, but would be resolved by the end of the week.
In non-COVID-19 related news, the board approved to refinance the Series 2022 lease certificates with L.J. Hart & Co. This refinancing has a potential to save the district $1.5 million in the coming years.
Comstock updated the board on possible summer projects which include new batting cages in the Perryville Primary building, which will come from the new Pepsi contract that the district signed. Comstock is also looking for a new space for the cheerleading squads.
Perryville Primary Center administrator Emily Koenig, Lacey Amschler and Michelle House showed a video titled “One School, One Book” which showcased their students engaged in read-ing books at school and at home. They said that they have seen real excitement within the school for the project.
The next regularly scheduled board meeting will be Wednesday, Feb. 9, at 7 p.m.