COVID-19 cases cloud students’ return to school in Sonoma County

On her children’s fifth day of school, Hayat Merouani received a message from Hidden Valley Elementary School that a student had tested positive for COVID-19.

Her son, Mohammed, in fifth grade, and her daughter, Maria, a second-grader, both attend the school. They awaited word on whether or not they were considered “close contacts” with the student who had tested positive, and tried not to worry.

“I was in shock,” Hayat Merouani said, adding that she hadn’t been too worried about the disease’s impact on her children when the school year began.

“To be honest with you, I wanted them to be at school,” she said. Last year, when she took off work to help facilitate her kids’ distance learning was “a waste of time.”

By Friday, she had not received any communication that either Mohammed or Maria were close contacts, and they went to school as usual. If either of her children were considered close contacts, “I should have known by now,” Hayat said Friday afternoon.

Her family’s experience navigating the new landscape of protocols and precautionary measures in schools is far from unique. Across Sonoma County, officials and families dealt with more than three dozen confirmed COVID cases in the first week of classes, immediately putting to the test measures designed to mitigate spread of the coronavirus on campus.

Those cases, in turn, triggered notices that went out to anyone thought to have been in close contact with the infected individuals. School officials haven’t said, but that wider group is likely to include hundreds of students.

Sonoma County’s epidemiology team on Saturday reported 38 cases of coronavirus recorded at 24 schools since the start of the school year. Of those, six were staff members and 32 were students.

Four of the cases recorded by the county Health Services Department were linked to school exposures, meaning on-site transmission occurred.

“It is hard to say yet whether these cases are cause for concern, since at this point we do not know the circumstances of the in-school transmission that was reported,” said Jamie Hansen, communications director for the Sonoma County Office of Education. “Also, being just a little over a week into the school year, there is still very little data to work with to understand if this was an anomaly or part of a larger trend.

“Initially, this information seems to reflect what has been seen around the state and nation when schools return: the majority of cases in schools are community-based, but there are some instances of in-school (transmission),” she said.

Santa Rosa City Schools by Friday had sent out 12 schoolwide notices advising families and staff about a COVID case on campus since the district kicked off its year on Aug. 17, according to Superintendent Anna Trunnell.

Trunnell said as far as she knew, the cases recorded so far were related to community contacts and not in-school exposures.

“(That) tells me that we have students and staff focused on keeping themselves safe and following their protocols so they can continue to remain in person,” Trunnell said.

Some quarantine protocols required by the California Department of Public Health have not changed from when students were able to return for hybrid learning during the final weeks of the year. Any sign of COVID symptoms, for example, means the student or staff member is required to stay home. A positive test also leads to mandatory quarantine.

A student or staff member can only return to campus once symptoms have subsided, including a fever without the use of fever-reducing medication, or if symptoms are attributed by a doctor to a separate condition.

Students quarantining at home are assigned work in a manner similar to pre-pandemic times: teachers send work home to them in paper format or digitally.

Kathryn Howell, president of the Santa Rosa Teachers Association, said that teachers have already felt the added burden in the first week of trying to keep quarantined students engaged while they’re out of the classroom.

“I think it’s been a struggle,” she said. “It’s a workload thing. You can’t necessarily send the same work home that you would be presenting in class. You have to pre-plan supports and scaffolds for students. It is not comparable with distance learning.”

Other students can be assigned to a “modified quarantine” that allows them to stay in school, if certain conditions are met under the California Department of Public Health guidance.

The modified quarantine allows them to continue coming to school, while self- monitoring for symptoms.

If unvaccinated, students have to have been masked while exposed to the infectious person to be eligible for modified quarantine; if not, the exposed student will likely have to quarantine at home. They must also remain asymptomatic and undergo at least twice weekly testing during the 10-day quarantine period. They may not participate in extracurricular activities such as sports while quarantining.

Vaccinated students, who are required to also be masked under statewide guidance, are typically allowed to remain at school in modified quarantine as long as they remain asymptomatic.

Confusion lingers over the proper steps to take. Howell said that she’s heard from teachers sending homework to their quarantined students who have expressed uncertainty over why they haven’t been identified as close contacts. The union is asking the school district to use seating charts to help determine close contacts during contact tracing.

They worry about their families and the potential for spread.

“It’s adding a lot of strife and stress to your everyday working environment because you don’t know who’s been exposed and how serious the contact tracing has been,” Howell said.

Trunnell acknowledged safety protocols and precautions loom large in everyone’s minds as the year continues.

“I look forward to the day when I can certainly continue to keep safety in our sights when it comes to students and staff, but more of the attention is on the learning,” she said.

But, like Hayat Merouani, school officials were united in their assessments that the return to in-person instruction has widespread benefit amid its challenges.

“It is absolutely worth it,” Trunnell said. “Being able to have hands-on, relational experiences with their peers, to learn from each other and learn directly from their instructors lends itself to positive social emotional growth.”

“Teachers are still very happy to be back in the rooms with the kids,” Howell said.

The effort to further shore up safeguards in schools continues with vaccination campaigns and clinics, said Steve Herrington, superintendent of schools for Sonoma County.

SCOE has set a goal to get 70% of Sonoma County’s 12 to 17-year-olds partially or fully vaccinated by the end of August. As of Friday, the rate stood at 64.5%.

“We’re really working on that,” Herrington said.

The county’s Health Services Department also is expected to announce a change in its guidance on outdoor masking, upgrading its language from “optional,” as stated in the state guidance to “strongly recommend” masking for students even while outdoors.

Herrington said he doesn’t expect Dr. Sundari Mase, the county’s health officer, will consider making outdoor masking a requirement unless data from the first few weeks of the school year show that the move would be necessary or beneficial.

Fire season is another concern in the coming months. Schools are preparing to deal with everything from potential power shut-offs to smoke pollution, which will inhibit their ability to keep classroom windows open — recommended as a COVID safety precaution.

“As a teacher, you’re rolling out class rules and protocols, plus the COVID rules and regulations and protocols, and now fires rules, regulations and protocols,” Herrington said. “There’s many extra layers put on people to open school.”

“There are different challenges and new challenges,” Howell said. But, a week in, “nobody’s saying, ‘Oh, let’s go back to distance learning.’“

Tell us:

This school year is every bit as unprecedented and unique as the one prior, as COVID continues to shape students’, parents’ and staff members’ lives. We want to help answer your questions and hear about your experiences with accessing instruction, safety protocols, transportation and everything in between. Email your questions to kaylee.tornay@pressdemocrat.com

You can reach Staff Writer Kaylee Tornay at 707-521-5250 or kaylee.tornay@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @ka_tornay.