| Dennis Hackett
dhackett@thereminder.com
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LUDLOW – With a spike in COVID-19 cases over the two weeks leading up to its Nov. 16 meeting, the Ludlow School Committee discussed the importance of the district’s test and stay program.
Acting Superintendent Lisa Nemeth said the district experienced a bump in cases in the previous two weeks leading up to the meeting.
“In the past two weeks, we had 18 positive cases, so that is a lot, even more so than last year when we were remote. One hundred twenty-six students were being tracked by the nurses for COVID [-19] exposure or symptoms, and 77 percent of those students were exposure related,” she said. “Forty-one individuals were considered a close contact in the school, 16 were fully vaccinated and did not need to quarantine, five participated in the test and stay and 20 decided to remain home.”
Nemeth added the cases were across the district and one school was not responsible for the majority of the cases.
While the district offers its test and stay program, only a fraction of the district is signed up to use it.
“Our biggest concern is the test and stay, we have been talking about how it is working but unfortunately we only have a 12 percent participation rate. We are thinking perhaps the parent does not realize they can sign up and be proactive in case it does occur. You can sign the permission slip at any time, and it saves us time to actually test your student,” she said.
With the test and stay program, students deemed to be close contacts receive a rapid COVID-19 test daily for five days and can remain in the classroom as long as the test comes back negative each day. By signing up for the program Nemeth said parents would be able to quickly arrange testing for their children if they are exposed to COVID-19 at school. By signing the consent form Nemeth said parents would also receive a follow up phone call before testing for a final approval.
Committee Chair Michael Kelliher said the test and stay program is one way to keep students in school.
“That is an important program and the key thing this year we have been trying hard to do this year is keep kids in school. It is one way that if your student is exposed as a contact and they are not vaccinated that we can keep them in school and learning,” he said. “It is a rapid test to do that so it is a good option and I hope parents will take another look at that, the last thing we want to do is have students miss school when we have an option to keep them in.”
While students can provide their own result of outside COVID-19 tests, Nemeth said that becomes impossible if a student is required to quarantine. Without the test, unvaccinated students are required to quarantine for a week.
Nemeth said she was anticipating a post-holiday spike in the schools.
“We did see a surge after Halloween which was this past week so we will most likely see a surge after Thanksgiving and Christmas,” she said.
In order to potentially get more students signed up for the program, Nemeth said she would be sending an email to parents with the information to sign up.
The School Committee next meets on Dec. 14 and coverage of that meeting will appear in the Dec. 23 edition of The Reminder.