LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) – Members of the Jefferson County Board of Education who want to reconsider cutting COVID-19 contact tracing and easing quarantine requirements as previously recommended by Superintendent Marty Pollio will need to raise the issue on their own.
Pollio says he does not intend to bring a second recommendation on ending contact tracing and quarantining for at-school exposures and reducing isolation periods for those who test positive for COVID-19 to at least five days after the board voted down his first by a single vote Jan. 18.
JCPS administrators backed the recommended change, which was based on updated guidance from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Kentucky Department for Public Health for school districts with universal masking policies like JCPS.
Board members who want to reconsider his recommendation can move to do that during the district’s regular COVID-19 updates at board meetings, Pollio said.
“At that time, any board member can make a motion that they would like to change our COVID mitigation,” he said Monday. “As long as they have a second and four votes, then that would become new policy that I would follow.”
Sarah Cole McIntosh, who represents District 7, says she hopes the board will at least take a second look at updating COVID-19 quarantining policies at JCPS. She believes relaxing those will help the district manage ongoing staffing shortages and limit learning disruptions for students.
McIntosh was one of three JCPS board members who backed Pollio’s recommendation to ease the district’s COVID-19 protocols in January.
“I don't think we can address our achievement gaps, I don't think that we can address any kind of loss opportunities for learning when kids aren’t in school,” she said. “We know that. We already have an attendance issue with some of our populations that are chronically absent statistically, and when you add 10 days of quarantine on top of that, you've got kids missing the equivalent of months’ worth of school every year. You just can't overcome that.”
Diane Porter, the board’s chairwoman who represents District 1, was among four board members who voted against changing the district’s COVID-19 mitigation plan. She called the proposal “dangerous” at the time, and she told WDRB News that coronavirus data and input from public health experts and district officials remain key factors in deliberations.
Porter expects talks of revising the district’s COVID-19 response will continue much as they have throughout the pandemic.
“None of this has been consistent all the way through,” she said. “It changes as we move forward, so I anticipate that there will be another conversation to look at it. But for those parents that thank us for keeping the quarantine the way it is now, it’s kind of hard to ignore those families.”
Debate on COVID-19 mitigation strategies continues at JCPS as school districts in other states adapt to newly loosened protocols amid declining coronavirus caseloads.
Indiana and several other states have dropped recommendations for contact tracing and quarantining after at-school exposures entirely regardless of districts’ masking policies. States like Massachusetts and New Jersey have also announced plans to lift statewide masking requirements in schools.
The CDC, which recommends universal masking inside schools, is also expected to revise its guidance on indoor masking soon, according to reports.
Pollio said he would base recommendations regarding indoor masking at JCPS on federal and state guidance.
“As soon as that changes and makes that recommendation to us, I will make that recommendation to our board,” he said.
Pushback against the district’s masking policy typically becomes more vocal as COVID-19 cases decline, Pollio said.
“It has been very tense in the past couple of weeks,” he said. “I expect that to continue throughout the weeks to come whether we make a change or whether another surge happens somewhere down the road.”
Decisions on JCPS masking policies may be out of the board’s hands by the conclusion of this year’s legislative session, however.
Kentucky’s House of Representatives is poised to consider a measure that would allow families of students in public schools to opt out of districts' masking requirements. The House Education Committee passed House Bill 51 on a 12-7 vote Feb. 15.
“It’s tough to have a one-size-fits-all approach with something like this that's going to be effective in all of the diverse communities that we have throughout Kentucky,” McIntosh said.
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