With COVID-19 numbers on the rise, Gasconade County R-2 officials are keeping a close watch on district policy to help prevent the viral spread while being unable to track specific cases within school buildings.

Superintendent Dr. Jeri Kay Hardy said Tuesday morning that the board plans to change its Safe Return to School Continuity Plan during the evening board meeting by adopting the Center for Disease Control (CDC) guidelines.

“That means students would be tested, which is considered day zero,” Hardy began. “If they test positive they will have to stay out for five days after that; so it is really six days (in isolation). If they test negative, they have to follow the same protocols as if they were sick. They go home until their fever is gone, which is at least 24-hours without medicine.”

A weekly report from Dr. Michael Rothermich, chief of staff at Hermann Area District Hospital, revealed that local positive COVID cases are on the rise, showing the same trend as state and national levels.

According to Rothermich’s report, one-third of those being tested this past week for the COVID-19 virus in Gasconade County ended up being positive, according to the weekly report from the physician tracking the pandemic (see story on page 3).

Due to changes following the Cole County case that stated health departments could not order health mandates, the district has been operating under its own board policy since Jan. 5 when students returned from school. Lack of communication with the health department has also made it harder to track COVID-related cases.

“Right now we have had 20 staff members out this month, although some are back now,” Hardy said. “Today, we had 32 Gerald Elementary Students out, 57 Owensville Elementary students, 29 high school students and 42 middle school students. We have several now out with the flu and know there are several flu cases in addition to COVID cases. That’s 160 students out district-wide.”

Hardy said she couldn’t provide a breakdown of which students are sick with what viral illness.

“The only numbers that we are for sure about is if we receive letters from the health department,” Hardy said. “We aren’t testing students because of the short supply of test kits, so we don’t have an accurate number of COVID cases. The district can’t require someone to be tested. They may stay home. They may not get tested. But if someone notifies us through the health department or doctor’s office, that is the only way we know about cases.”

With nine percent of students at home, the district has no plans to close.

Some school districts in Columbia, Jefferson City and St. Louis has closed due to high and rising COVID illness. Too many students are out and not enough substitute teachers to staff the buildings have led to school closures.

Hardy said the substitute teacher rate so far has been good for Gasconade R-2.

“Our numbers do not compare and our sub fill rate numbers do not compare to theirs. NASA has come out with DESE (Department of Elementary and Secondary Education) and said we only have four days of AMI and we only have two more days we can use and that is the limit for the entire year,” Hardy said. “They said ‘if you have to, don’t shut the entire district down. You can shut buildings down if numbers are that bad,’ but our district is not to that level.”

Hardy said she hopes that the new CDC guidelines will help keep more students in-seat if they test positive for COVID-19. 

“Depending on new CDC guidelines, depending on if the board adopts it, it should help as far as not having so many people out at one time because isolating goes from 10 days to six,” she said.

When the CDC released the new guidelines in December, Gasconade R-2 had already held its monthly meeting, so did not adopt the changes to its Safe Return to Schools Continuity Plan. The district has been operating under the previous guidelines which stated a 10-day isolation period was necessary.

“We didn’t have a knee jerk reaction when they decided Dec. 26 to change those guidelines,” Hardy said. “We waited until the January board meeting. We keep an eye on things as they are evolving.”

She added that back in the summer months, the Missouri State Supervisor of Superintendents thought that this year would be the easiest year yet, but it has been the toughest year so far.

“He said we had more positions open this time of year than what they have normally ran in past years,” Hardy said. “All positions in education are short.”

Gasconade County’s Health Department on Friday afternoon issued a warning saying, “COVID-19 cases are at an all-time high throughout the state of Missouri and the United States despite a shortage of rapid testing options. There are also new record highs for COVID-19 positive hospital admissions and patients admitted to the ICU Missouri.”