Salem School Officials Talk COVID Concerns Entering 3rd Pandemic Year

SALEM, MA — Salem is among the districts trying to figure out what — if any — COVID-19 testing, mitigation and return-to-classroom protocols it will follow for the new school year after the state removed virtually all guidance from its recommendations.

Saying that districts should "focus their COVID mitigation strategies towards vulnerable and
symptomatic individuals" the state Board of Education said earlier this month it is not recommending universal mask requirements, surveillance testing of asymptomatic individuals, contact tracing or test-to-stay in schools for the upcoming academic year.

The only indoor masking requirement remains inside school health offices.

The state also noted that its statewide testing program concluded in the spring and that districts would be responsible for costs and acquisition of tests for any programs they choose to continue on their own this year.

For a district like Salem, which was among the first to adopt a robust surveillance testing program and among the last in the state to end universal masking indoors for all students and staff, it represents a seismic shift in response to the virus that has dominated many School Committee discussions for the past 2 1/2 years.

Among the changes for this year is that there will be no more remote instruction for students who are out of school because of a positive COVID-19 test. Students will be required to stay out of school for five days following a positive test and will be able to return on the sixth day as long as symptoms subside and there is no fever.

"Given the five-day period we're going to treat it as illnesses were prior to the pandemic," Superintendent Steve Zrike told the School Committee during Monday night's presentation.

At the end of last year, Salem went beyond the state guidelines and required a negative test to return on days six through 10 following a positive test. But that will not be the case this year — although students will be required to wear a well-fitting mask during that period.

"We're going to do our best to make sure people are following that," Zrike allowed. "It's going to be hard for nurses and staff to be policing that. That's not something that we can necessarily be asking people to do. But on people's honor, it's important that people wear masks when they come back through day 10 when they test positive."

Zrike told the School Committee the schools do have ample amounts of surgical and K-95 masks for students and staff who choose to still wear them. And that while at-home tests won't be distributed to all students as they were in the spring, they are available for free to families that request them until they expire in December.

Most of Monday night's discussion centered around helping make sure — with the lack of remote instruction — students do not fall behind when they have to miss five days or more because of a COVID-19 infection.

"What typically happens if you're just kind of a run-of-the-mill illness and you're out it's kind of incumbent upon you as a family member to figure out what you need and how to make up those five days," Salem Mayor and School Committee Chair Kim Driscoll said. "Depending upon how ill a child is they might be able to do a lot.

"Is there any opportunity to Zoom into a classroom? I know we're not having that. Are there regular intervals where we're going to say: 'OK, this is a catch-up day on a Saturday where people will be around? Is there a way to normalize that?

"I think we have to expect we are going to have students who are out and I want to make sure we are serving students and families where they are at."

Zrike said that while he thought it was "great" that the district was able to provide the remote instruction for COVID-positive students last year, "it does take its toll on the staff in terms of the shifting that goes on."

He suggested other online work resources the students could use while they are out and catch-up opportunities during vacations, if necessary.

"We really want to make sure kids come back as soon as possible," Zrike said. "We can continue to explore what we can do. But I want to minimize the disruption (one student's illness) has for the entire classroom.

"Hopefully we won't have kids out as much as they were (the past school year)."

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)