School will be mask-optional starting next week
Haines Borough School District superintendent Roy Getchell will make masks optional for students and staff on March 7.
The Alaska Department of Health and Human Services has cleared all known cases of community transmission in Haines (cases where the source of infection is unknown) and there are no school related cases (students or staff who have been at school during the contagious period), Getchell told the CVN Wednesday. That’s the threshold, decided by the school board at a meeting in January, at which masks could be optional.
At its Tuesday meeting, the board voted unanimously to allow superintendent Roy Getchell to make masks optional at a medium risk level, a level that he will determine based on consultation with local, state and federal health professionals.
The Alaska Department of Health and Human Service has reported 27 cases in Haines since Feb. 23. But Getchell said trying to assess case numbers using the state’s covid dashboard doesn’t give an accurate picture in real time. SEARHC staff told Getchell Wednesday that there are less than five reported cases of covid in Haines and they’re not linked to community spread.
“I don’t think it’s a secret that the (state’s covid) dashboard’s way behind,” Getchell told the CVN Wednesday. “It’s backlogged so the data that’s there, you can’t use that for immediate accuracy. You’re looking at a week ago, at least.”
Because of more widespread immunity through either vaccination or prior infection, the Centers for Disease Control relaxed its mask guidance for communities where healthcare systems aren’t strained. The Haines Borough is at a medium risk level, according to the CDC. Since the most recent outbreak occurred in late December, no hospitalizations or deaths have been reported.
Getchell said even though the CDC changed its guidance, he’s proud that the school and community have met the January goal for when masks could be optional.
“What the board did was give me autonomy for covid–related decisions and also the flexibility of not flipping in and out of mitigations based on that pretty tight (Jan. 4) threshold,” Getchell said.
Getchell told the board that health guidance is moving from “emergency response to routine disease management.”
“I think we’re there. It doesn’t mean risk has gone away,” Getchell said. “What it means is it’s been lessened. It’s more about managing it.”
school board member Michael Wald said he was confident in Getchell’s ability to make such a decision but worried that he’d attract too much criticism no matter what decision he made.
“My concern is that unfortunately, as this has been politicized and the temperature has been turned up, I’d like there to be mechanisms so you have the support you need (so that) when parents on either side of the discussion are upset, you’re not the one hung out to dry,” Wald said.
In other news, Kim Larson updated the board regarding plans for “Jenae’s Playground,” a fundraising effort that will install new play equipment. The design includes tricycle trails, a sledding hill, log balance beams, sandboxes with fossils to dig for, a dock pier with a boat play structure and a shorefront landscape with boulders, play canoes and one of Larson’s favorite animals.
A committee working to see the playground to fruition has raised $136,000, Larson said.
school board member Anne Marie Palmieri encouraged Larson to return to the board if the group needed additional funding.
“This is a gift to the kids,” Palmieri said. “I would be willing to make a motion to contribute money. I think that’s appropriate for the school board to contribute money on the project. I would encourage you to come back and ask us for money.”
Jenae Larson was killed in the Dec. 2, 2020 landslide on Beach Road. A lifelong Haines resident, she was teaching her first year at the school she graduated from after earning her teaching degree.
Organizations and individuals have since made myriad donations to recovery efforts since the disaster including the playground fundraiser. Aspen Hotels donated $20,000 to the playground last December and Corvus Design, a Juneau landscape architectural firm, is designing it pro bono.