Thread by @skylar_rispens

I'm tuned in to the @McpsMT #COVID19 task force meeting and it's a delayed start due to some technical difficulties with Zoom. Sounds like they've identified the problem and are working to remedy it now.
#mtedu #mtnews

Things are kicking off now, starting with a recap of last week's meeting for members that were unable to attend.

Looking at COVID-19 data for Missoula City County lead by Cindy Farr of the Missoula County Public Health Department.
"We are still seeing record numbers of hospitalizations," she said.

MCPS Supt. Watson brought up inconsistencies with the DPHHS report of COVID cases in Montana's schools (K-12 thru higher ed).
"Montana State University is reporting 226 cases since the start of the year whereas the University of Montana is reporting 23, which seems a little...

...strange, but then if you go down and look at Missoula specifically for school data, for example, it's showing Big Sky High School with four cases since the start of the year. We know there's been a lot more than four," Watson said.

"So Cindy, what I was going to ask you is, do you know where this data is coming from?" Watson asked.

"This data is actually coming from the data that gets entered into the (state database)...," Farr said.
District's across the state input COVID data into the state database through case investigators that speak with COVID+ people.

"We find out what school they go to and then eventually it gets entered into (the database), we let them know at DPHHS when they started pulling this report that it was going to be very misleading and it was going to be very incomplete data," Farr continued.

"And they pretty much said they didn't care, so they're pulling it out of their database, even though they know it's not complete until we've actually had a chance to interview all of the cases, which as of this afternoon I know that we had at least 400 cases that have yet...

...to even be interviewed, like, they have not been able to connect with those cases yet," she continued.

Those cases will not be recognized by DPHHS until the information is input into the database.

"I would say that it's probably about three weeks behind. As far as what they're reporting now is basically what they were seeing in the first week or so of school," Farr said.

Watson gave a run down of the latest data out of the district, which I've already tweeted about today.
Check it out here:

https://twitter.com/skylar_rispens/status/1445137124995567624?s=20

In terms of dropping the mask mandate and moving to 6-foot distancing, those involved with contact tracing at the district anticipate that they'd see a 40% more close contacts at high schools and middle schools. That number would likely be closed to 20-25% for elementary schools.

Watson said other extracurricular programs offered by the district have been canceled due to COVID-19, but did not elaborate. Jefferson is the first building-wide COVID-19 shutdown in the district this year.

The district was unable to staff Jefferson, it's a small program with only about six classrooms of preschool aged students.

The district offered surveillance testing to all students and staff at Jefferson.

Not much evidence for spread related to district events. Could be because of how many events are outdoors, however there haven't been any clusters tied to volleyball.

Someone brought up how things are going in Kalispell, a AA district that does not require masking indoors.

"Their superintendent shared with me that it feels like it might be under reported in terms of people sharing the positive cases, so I don't know if that's a great comparison," Watson said.

COVID-19 task force members that work in classrooms are sharing anecdotal experiences about their perspectives about the mask policy as it currently stands.
Overall, it seems like things are going smoothly in terms of compliance.

Posting some links that Watson shared in the chat for attendees and committee members:
docs.google.com/document/d/e/2…

healio.com/news/pediatric…

Watson is now going possible changes he may recommend to trustees for the 10/12 board meeting.

Here's a look what is being considered:
docs.google.com/document/d/e/2…

Option 1:
No change in Pre-k thru 12 mitigation strategies until COVID vaccines are widely available for children 5-11 years old and time for vaccine immunity (aprox. 8 weeks after the first shots are available). AND indicators are in yellow or green "for several" weeks

Option 2:
No change pre-k thru 8 until vax is widely available (and time for immunity), and community/district indicators are yellow/green for several consecutive weeks.
Consider adjustments to high school mitigation strategies.

Option 3:
Regardless of vax availability, adjust mask mandate for all students pre-k thru 12 when community/district indicators are yellow/green.

Regardless of what Watson ultimately decides to recommend to the board, it doesn't sound like much will really change at the district in terms of masks until cases subside.

Obviously, this is all subject to deliberation by the board on 10/12, but the board didn't deviate much at all from Watson's initial mask recommendation in August.

Watson is asking the task force members to read through his three recommendations and consider pros and cons of each and to email those lists to him.

Public comment time!

One comment, it was a question. MCPS doesn't respond to direct questions during public comment so Watson asked them to write him an email for a response.

Annnnnd that's the meeting!