Stricter state COVID rules impact schools

Updated guidelines with contact tracing may lead to more school staff quarantining, according to administration.

Under previous guidelines, if somebody was wearing a mask, then they would not be counted in contact tracing by the Butler County Health Department.

As a result, the Poplar Bluff R-I school board approved a mask mandate for staff at its September board meeting to keep more teachers in the classroom and decrease the need for substitutes.

However, under new guidelines handed down by the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services, a person will be named in contact tracing regardless of using personal protective equipment (PPE).

“Now, my students and teachers will be considered close contacts, regardless of their PPE status,” Dr. Scott Dill, R-I superintendent, said.

Students cannot test out of quarantine, Dill said.

Teachers and staff can take a COVID test 72 hours after contact. As essential workers, they can return to work if that test is negative. They would be required to wear a PPE for the original 14-day quarantine period.

Since a board vote approved the school mask mandate, Dill said, he will not decide about what to do with it without a new discussion with the board.

“We are trying to determine what our next best steps will be as we continue to navigate this pandemic,” he said. “I am not in the habit of altering board directives without their say so.

“I am in discussion with my board. Ultimately, that will be a decision that I make in cooperation with them.”

The board is next scheduled to meet Oct. 15.

To be named in contact tracing, somebody needs to be in close contact — within six feet — with a positive person for a cumulative 15-minutes over the course of a day.

At the end of last week, Dill said, more than 500 staff and students with the district were self-isolating.

While a group of them returned this week, after finishing their 14 days, Dill said, he expects the number to increase again with this new guideline.

“It sounds minor, but it’s really rather significant, because the number of individuals involved in close contact tracing will go up,” he said.

Dill said he appreciates the Butler County Health Department and what help the district got when reopening schools.

“The Butler County Health Department has been amazing to work with; they have been responsive to our needs,” he said. “I don’t put any of this on them. They were utilizing what we mutually perceived as their authority at the local level.”

The situation is frustrating, Dill said, when since the beginning of the pandemic people have been told how much local control is respected.

This guideline came down from the state, he said.

“Either we are going to be given the latitude to respond as our community sees fit to this crisis or the states give us directives,” he said. “Right now, we’re getting it both ways, and it’s frustrating for everyone involved.”