COVID Surge Forces Review Of Health & Safety Plan

Peters Township School Directors met Monday evening to review the school district’s health and safety plan in a policy committee meeting in advance of their voting meeting on January 18. School Director Lisa Anderson led the discussion to make recommendations for the school board to formally adopt. The meeting started with a power point presentation by Superintendent Dr. Jeannine French outlining what about the pandemic changed since last August. She outlined positive changes such as vaccination availabilities for all students age 5 and up, decreased isolation and quarantine times as suggested by the CDC and the need for students to be taught in person during the school year. She also outlined the negatives such as the increased case count of coronavirus in the schools. She did point out that most of those cases were developed outside the school buildings during the Christmas holiday vacation. Board directors concentrated on how they would like to try and roll back current mask requirements. During discussion, directors’ views on rolling back the mask requirements varied from letting it stand for the next three months to using Department of Health transmission rates as a guide to remove masks. Directors’ thoughts varied on whether a roll back should be automatic or be voted on by the board. No formal policy was put forth. Directors were instructed to communicate with Dr. French and or Board Chairman Thomas McMurray their thoughts so that a plan would be drawn up for next week’s meeting.