Possible changes to the Unionville-Chadds Ford School District Health and Safety Plan are about to be considered. Some of the possible changes reflect changes from the Chester County Health Department, according to school board Director and Vice President Victoria Baratta.
Assistant Superintendent Tim Hoffman updated the rest of the board and the public on what could change and what wouldn’t. He said the plan is written with enough flexibility to accommodate changes in guidance from both the CDC and the county Health Department.
He said there are no changes regarding the protocol for dealing with people who test positive for COVID.
“Families of students who tested positive for COVID-19 should keep their children at home, contact the attendance office and email the school nurse for instruction, and individuals who have tested positive should consult with the Chester County Health Department website for isolation guidelines. So, when it comes to a COVID positive case, the guidance has not changed,” Hoffman said.
However, there is one “big change,” as he called it.
“School districts are no longer authorized by the Chester County Health Department to provide quarantine letters to individuals who are identified as close contacts of positive cases. In fact, they don’t have the authority to quarantine close contacts,” he said.
Hoffman said that county school districts had been told to stop contact tracing. That means, he said, that school nurses and administrators will not be contacting families of students considered close contacts to others who have tested positive.
“For the current level of community spread, the Chester County Health Department has stated that universal contact tracing is an increasingly less effective practical tool to disrupt the spread of the infection throughout Chester County.”
Hoffman added that parents who learn their children have come in close contact with someone with COVID should follow the health department’s quarantine guidance and talk to the family doctor.
Other mitigation practices will remain in place. Hoffman said that kids should stay home if sick, and masking remains the standard practice in the district buildings and buses regardless of vaccination status, adding that school nurses will continue testing students showing symptoms. In addition, the testing ticket booth at the stadium remains open. Parents interested in using that facility for their students should go to the district website to set up an appointment.
School board directors will discuss the plan during the Feb. 14 work session, then vote on possible changes during the regular meeting two weeks later. One of the issues to be discussed, he said, is masking.
Rich Schwartzman has been reporting on events in the greater Chadds Ford area since September 2001 when he became the founding editor of The Chadds Ford Post. In April 2009 he became managing editor of ChaddsFordLive. He is also an award-winning photographer.
