Vaccinations drive decrease in school spread of COVID

MAT-SU — Despite the state of Alaska currently holding the highest COVID-19 case rate in the nation at any time during the coronavirus pandemic, the Mat-Su Borough School District has been able to remain open to in-person instruction and allow masks to be optional for students a majority of the time. Currently, only Fronteras Spanish Immersion Charter School and Knik Elementary are closed to in-person instruction and 16 out of 47 schools are at a medium risk level with masks required. There are 29 schools accounting for over 61 % of the district that are at a low risk level and do not require masks for students. MSBSD Superintendent Dr. Randy Trani participates in the Health Action Team meetings each day to discuss spread within the schools where the main question is “what can we do to keep schools open.”

Over 4,000 students are taking in-person classes this year than in the 2020-2021 school year and Trani and the MSBSD administration are working to keep schools as normal as possible while striking a balance between effective mitigation and normalcy.

“We recognize and I think the majority of folks recognize that it really is a polarizing issue and that we are trying to strike the middle ground where we are doing enough to keep kids and staff safe, and we are trying to keep it as normal as possible. But we do have to recognize COVID is really with us right now and we have to deal with it,” said Trani. “Most people are giving each other lots and lots of grace and I think that’s what it takes, like you’ve heard me say let’s look at this problem side by side instead of toe to toe.”

Trani has provided an update on COVID-19 mitigation within MSBSD during the beginning of his Superintendent’s report at each MSBSD School Board meeting where he provides a plethora of graphs and charts tracking raw data of infections of students and staff. Early in 2021, Trani began using a chart mapping the cases within the Mat-Su Borough itself compared to MSBSD, noticing that the school’s case increases often precede those at the borough level by a few weeks.

“Our data leads the state data and I knew like two or three weeks ago, I was like the borough is going to have a couple thousand cases in a week. It’s just going to happen, because we’ve seen it happen before and then that’s what’s happening but our data has been going down for three weeks, like there are fewer cases like this. The first three days this week were the lowest in three weeks,” said Trani.

All of the cases reported on the MSBSD COVID-19 dashboard were reported as infectious while in school. To date, there have been 1,467 cases reported within MSBSD with 22 new on Thursday and 153 over the last week. There have been 3,900 Mat-Su Valley residents under the age of 20 who have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, which Trani says is making the major difference in curtailing infections within schools. During the last school year, a segmented three-period week and the combination of no in-person classes on Fridays were implemented as mitigation strategies that have not been continued this school year. Trani has been curiously following the Anchorage School District COVID-19 numbers in comparison with the MSBSD numbers as an experiment on if schools can remain open without masks and what effect masks might have on keeping schools open.

“I say this one as often as I can, we’ve learned the power of that vaccine. Our infection rate as a percentage of our staff this year compared to last year is cut almost in half,” said Trani. “The vaccine really mitigates. It mitigates more than all of those other things or as much as all of those other things that we changed.”

Trani said that in September, 18 % of secondary school students had been vaccinated and the number of staff infections with COVID-19 dropped from 25 % last year to 13 % this year. Though the MSBSD opened schools without a district wide mask requirement, Trani says that administration has become quick to move schools to a medium risk level with increased spread though there is no one specific metric that will trigger the risk level change.

“We learned right away with Butte that we didn’t react fast enough. Our trigger finger was too heavy, we needed to have a lighter trigger finger. By the time we put masks on it was too late to stop it and then Butte went crazy and so that’s an example of how we’ve learned from the beginning of the year to now,” said Trani. “If we see some, if we see something starting like Butte, we need to react faster than we did before. That’s the if, then that we have learned.”

Butte Elementary became the first MSBSD school to close to in-person instruction, but is currently at a low alert level with no new cases reported Thursday, two over the last week but 76 cases total this year. Alaska Division of Health Director Heidi Hedberg announced last week that 50,000 rapid at-home COVID-19 tests would be distributed to schools, and Trani said that MSBSD will receive 10,000 at-home tests. Though the tests will assist in screening for COVID-19, Trani said that it will not come without their own challenges.

“The rapid tests are a really good screening instrument for knowing should you get a more accurate test,” said Trani. “It’s going to be a convenience thing for families for us to be able to use those rapid tests.”

Among the new difficulties faced by the MSBSD administration, students and parents for this school year is the shortage of bus drivers that has been experienced by school districts across the nation. Trani said that busing contractor First Student has been able to make new hires to staff all but eight bus routes while districts like the Fairbanks School District still has 30 % of their bus routes unstaffed. However, President Joe Biden’s impending Federal vaccine mandate for businesses is expected to affect bus drivers later this calendar year, though the details are yet to be finalized as to when.

“First Student has added drivers recently and they are continuing to add drivers. They are also worried that they may lose more drivers so it is really murky and unclear what might happen,” said Trani.

Last year, secondary school students accounted for 39 % of cases. This year without a three-period week and no Friday in-person instruction, secondary students still account for 40 % of cases among students.

“The mask battle doesn’t get us out of this, like it just doesn’t, right. It’s the vaccine battle, that’s where we really see the evidence that it really really really works,” said Trani. “We’re doing a really remarkable job of actually keeping the doors open.”