Harford County Public Schools: Vaccines, In-Person Plans

HARFORD COUNTY, MD — As coronavirus metrics remain above state guidelines that would allow for a return to in-person learning, Harford County Public Schools officials say they are working toward a return.

“We do have a plan to return in person," Superintendent Sean Bulson said at Monday night's virtual Harford County Board of Education meeting. "The trouble is we don’t have a schedule."

Instruction returned to 100 percent virtual Nov. 13 after about four weeks of in-person instruction that enabled some students to return to school buildings.

"If we have the chance to bring our students back, that will be our first priority," Bulson said, stating: "Fully virtual learning is not where we want to be."

Current health metrics do not allow the school system to return to in-person learning at the moment, he said.

According to the Maryland Department of Education's COVID-19 Guidance for Maryland Schools, school systems with a positivity rate greater than 5 percent and a daily new case rate of at least 15 per 100,000 may have limited or no in-person programs.

Harford County's coronavirus positivity rate is 8.01 percent and its case rate is 39.54 per 100,000 as of state health data released Monday.

In the face of the coronavirus, Bulson said the dates for a return to school are "immaterial."

He said the school system did, however, have a plan that had been in progress before a spike in cases required it to return to virtual learning.

"Right now our plan is in place for [a] one-day-a-week hybrid, if we're at the 6 feet," Bulson said, because that was how many students the school system could accommodate with the required amount of social distancing. "We'll do our best to roll it up to older grade levels because that was what was in process" before the school system returned to virtual learning.

Students who had attended learning centers five days a week, particularly high-priority special education students, would attend in-person classes five days a week.

HCPS Vaccines Expected To Begin In February

School nurses all received vaccines in December "because many of them are currently assisting with vaccine administration," Bulson said. They are working in the clinics to give the coronavirus vaccines to those in the state's 1A group, which is predominantly health care workers.

Those in the priority 1A group have to be vaccinated first before the next group may receive their vaccinations.

"It's our hope that we'll be able to develop clinics" to have all Harford County Public Schools employees vaccinated in the month of February, Bulson said. The goal was for all staff who wanted the vaccine to be through the second dose in March, since the coronavirus vaccine requires two doses, weeks apart.

"As of the last I heard from Mary Masuta, our supervisor of health services, clinics now are delivering 500 doses per day," Bulson said Monday. "We are hopeful that will ramp up," he continued, but it was dependent on how much vaccine Harford County receives.

Even once the vaccine becomes available to Harford County Public Schools staff, Bulson said, it is "not the magic bullet."

He said the vaccine protects those who have it from getting particularly ill, but noted the science is not clear whether those people can still transmit the virus.

Also at the moment, the Moderna vaccine is primarily what is coming into Harford County, and that is for people over age 18.

"In this wave, we won't be seeing students eligible for the vaccine," Bulson said.

Guidance May Change

As administrators consider how access to vaccines could impact the logistics of in-person learning, Bulson said social distancing and hand sanitizing were expected to continue to be a regular critical component.

Bulson said the state may be changing its guidance for reopening, but it was unclear how.

"We also need to understand how the guidance at the state level is changing and how that might affect our ability to do more in-person learning," Bulson said.

In the meantime, data gathering has been happening behind the scenes, Bulson said, including eight focus groups last week that he said were coordinated by the PTAs around the county.

The groups discuss what has been done and provide ideas for the future, Bulson said.

As of Monday, officials said Harford County Public Schools students will not have midterms, but they will have finals.

In-person sports are "on hold" until coronavirus metrics permit, according to Bulson.

See Also:

• Harford County Exec Gives Final $2.1M CARES Act Funding To HCPS
• Public Schools Go Back Online After Virus Spike In Harford County