The Martha’s Vineyard Public School District (MVPS) is amending health and safety policies as state and federal COVID restrictions continue to loosen, doing away with weekly COVID pool testing for students and staff.
At Wednesday’s All-Island School Committee meeting, based on updates to Department of Public Health and Centers for Disease Control protocols, Superintendent Richie Smith said he has engaged with school nurses to consider changes to school policies.
“We will no longer provide weekly pool testing for our students and staff. We had a pretty significant group of students and staff engaging in that last year,” Smith said. He noted that Island schools provided pool testing through a Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) program funded by the Shaw Foundation. Because they worked under the auspices of the DESE grant, schools couldn’t require all students and staff to submit to testing — they had been required to obtain consent from parents.
Additionally, Smith proposed that schools no longer require testing for student athletes who wish to continue being eligible for sports, and discontinue required testing of club members who are traveling off-Island for school events. Smith said most other Cape and Island school districts are not requiring their student athletes to test for COVID.
For as long as funding allows, Smith said, schools will provide rapid testing of students at school and at home who exhibit symptoms. All nurses will continue to record positive cases and track the isolation times to determine when is appropriate for students to return to school. School officials will also report the number of positive cases of staff and students each week on the MVPS website. On a separate phone call with The Times, Smith stressed that the lack of funding wasn’t the only reason pool testing is being discontinued — it’s a matter of efficacy. Because Island schools didn’t have 100 percent consent from parents for testing, Smith said, pool testing wasn’t as accurate a barometer for infection as it could have been.
Any children who are symptomatic will be tested using iHealth COVID rapid antigen tests, and if need be, nurses will call home to gain consent from parents for onsite testing. If parents don’t provide consent, that particular child would be sent home with a test. “We would ask our families to do everything they can in their homes to mitigate the spread of infection,” Smith said.
School nurse Catherine Coogan said students are required to stay out of school until they have only mild symptoms or no symptoms. Students who test positive or are a close contact must be isolated for five days, then they may return to school. If a student is able to mask, they must wear a mask through day 10 following exposure or infection, unless that student tests negative.
Committee chair Skipper Manter asked if these policies are going to take three readings in order to officially ratify. Committee member Kate DeVane said the additional COVID policies were established using the three-reading process, so the committee would have to vote three times to update the policies. The vote to move the first reading to amend the MVPS health and safety policies passed unanimously. Students and staff will no longer engage in pool testing, and student athletes will no longer be required to test in order to be eligible.
In other business, Smith said the school district has held off on hiring an assistant superintendent so far, partially because officials are looking to conduct a comprehensive reorganization of the central office. Smith said he wants enough time to reorganize the office in a thoughtful and intelligent way, but suggested looking for some kind of interim assistant superintendent or contracted role to support him. “Either through contracting with someone who would be on the Island who could occupy some of the responsibilities of the assistant superintendent position, or hire an interim in a temporary manner — someone who might be retired,” Smith said. “Once we have reorganization we would open up that advertisement and look for the permanent person.”
Manter stressed the importance of having some chain of command, in the event Smith becomes incapacitated for whatever reason. “You need to know who that person is going to be, and they need to know what you’d like done in the event you aren’t able to make a decision,” Manter said. Smith said he will work to fill the position temporarily until the central office is reorganized, at which point they would advertise for the permanent position.
MASC on
Now that the school district is working with the Massachusetts Association of School Committees (MASC), Smith proposed that the AISC engage in training with MASC on a regular basis. He said the chance to ask questions and receive feedback from highly experienced MASC representatives would be invaluable, particularly as the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School seeks to receive state funding for a massive facilities rebuild.
Smith said there is a high probability that a MASC representative could meet with the AISC on a regular basis — the question for school committee members is how often, and how long, the meetings with MASC would be. “The MASC person would talk to us about process, school governance, and deal with issues that are more unique to us,” Smith said. “It would be a two-way discussion where people can ask questions.” He said MASC field director Dorothy Presser would serve as the Island’s representative, noting her skill and experience in school governance. School administrators would also be invited to the MASC training sessions.
Committee member Kathryn Shertzer said even if the AISC could commit to one hour per month, and stick to that plan for six months, that would be an important opportunity to ask questions and engage in dialogue. “We always have these questions at these all-Island meetings and locals, and we always say, ‘Wouldn’t it be great if we had MASC here to ask them?’” Shertzer said. No vote was taken on engaging in MASC training, but committee members expressed strong support for the idea.
