Board of health officials met with school nurses from the Frontier and Union 38 regional school district member towns on Friday to discuss the latest COVID-19 community health metrics.
Of most significant concern to public health officials on Friday was the changing time in turnaround for tests.
“If we’re sending staff and students home to get tested, and we’re not able to get a response, or a result, in a timely fashion, that’s going to have an impact on contact tracing and the follow-up for anybody who is eventually determined to be positive,” said Meg Burch, the nurse at Conway Grammar School and nurse leader for Frontier and Union 38 regional school districts.
Superintendent Darius Modestow noted that based on the current rollout plan for the elementary school, students will have several days between in-person lessons.
In an earlier draft of the community health metrics for COVID-19 and the schools, the timeliness of testing results was included as an indicator for school closure, but in the draft presented Friday, that indicator had been removed.
“We couldn’t be sure we could have access to that data, but in talking to Carolyn (Shores Ness), she has considered we put that back on as a flag for us,” Burch said. Shores Ness serves on the Deerfield Board of Health.
If public health officials know test results were delayed by greater than 48 hours, “that would be a flag,” Burch added.
Shores Ness, who said it would be beyond the Board of Health to monitor turnaround times for sites, suggested the Western Massachusetts Health and Medical Coordinating Coalition (HMCC), which is funded by the state Department of Public Health, be asked to notify a point person with the school districts’ member towns if there are any problems that could lead to the slowdown in test turnaround time.
The boards of health in attendance that had a quorum — Deerfield, Conway and Whately — voted to approach the HMCC with the task of updating them daily.
Another community health metric officials discussed was the importance of percent positive test rates, both at the county and statewide level.
“(The Public Health Institute of Western Massachusetts’ data) gives us data we were not able to get from the state dashboard … or even the color-coded map they have to indicate the level of risk in the community,” Burch said. “The things I look at … and are important to us, are the percent positive tests for the last two-week period.”
Burch noted that despite an increase in testing over the last two weeks, Franklin County has remained at a steady 0.31 percent positive tests, compared to Massachusetts’ 1.07 percent, according to the institute’s data for Franklin County.
Burch told the nurses and other public health officials that the schools do have sufficient personal protective equipment for all classroom teachers and teaching staff, to get the year started.
“KN95s would be helpful,” she said. “I think we’re OK on disposable masks.”
Modestow added that the schools are now updating and fixing their ventilation systems. He also said the district has ordered MERV 13 filters and ultraviolet lights, which have been effective in killing mold and bacteria.
Before adjourning the meeting, Shores Ness said she wants to continue having conversations like these, as concerns are raised.
“Everything changes so rapidly and if we have concerns,” she said, “I think we should be able to talk about it as much as possible.”
Mary Byrne can be reached at mbyrne@recorder.com or 413-772-0261, ext. 263. Twitter: @MaryEByrne