HANCOCK COUNTY — COVID-19 cases at the county’s schools have resulted in exposures to hundreds of close contacts, many of whom must quarantine at home.
The numbers mount just days into what school officials were hoping to be a much more normal academic year.
At Greenfield-Central, 26 cases have led to 276 close contacts.
At Mt. Vernon, a handful of cases have led to 72. The spike drove leaders there to consider updating health and safety protocols, but opposition from a functional medicine doctor and parents toward the plan in its entirety is giving them pause. That feedback has been heard far beyond attendees of the recent school board meeting, with an online video of the session accumulating hundreds of thousands of views.
Mt. Vernon
At a special school board meeting late last Friday, Mt. Vernon reported it had three COVID-19 cases since starting the school year on July 29. According to updated school COVID-19 data from the Indiana Department of Health on Monday, those cases were among students at the middle and high schools.
Chris Smedley, assistant superintendent at Mt. Vernon, said investigations into the cases revealed 72 close contacts, most of whom have had to stay home in quarantine. The 15 that don’t have to quarantine are fully vaccinated.
“When we received such a large number of close contacts compared to anything we experienced last year, we felt we needed to consider some safety measures in the event that things took an incredibly wrong direction,” Mt. Vernon superintendent Jack Parker said.
Mt. Vernon’s system already relies on the absentee rate due to combined illness of students and staff in an individual building to trigger certain requirements. Those include additional sanitizing procedures, masking, and, in the event of widespread absences, consulting with the Hancock County Health Department about possibly closing a school.
The proposed addition would add numbers of COVID-positive individuals per building as triggers for those requirements as well.
Mt. Vernon’s plan also already addresses procedures for reporting COVID-19 cases, investigation and contact tracing, as well as isolation for those who test positive for COVID-19 and quarantining of close contacts, all of which stem from Indiana Department of Health measures referred to in a state executive order. Those measures include avoiding quarantines for close contacts who are fully vaccinated and shorter quarantines for close contacts who test negative if they mask and socially distance for the remainder of what would have been a full quarantine.
Smedley also noted that Indiana’s back-to-school guidance recently added that while fully vaccinated close contacts don’t necessarily have to quarantine, they should wear a mask until a negative test result is received.
A federal mandate requires masks on school buses. Mt. Vernon encourages wearing masks in buildings, and requires them in buildings in the orange and red tiers — the most severe of the district’s color system. Orange represents an absentee rate of 16% due to combined illness of students and staff in an individual building, while red represents 20%.
Dr. Dan Stock, a McCordsville resident and functional family medical physician, told the board that masks and vaccines don’t work to prevent the spread of COVID-19, claims that contradict the guidance issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, state and local health departments, and Hancock Regional Hospital officials.
“I’m specially trained in immunology and inflammation regulation, and everything being recommended by the CDC and state board of health is actually contrary to all the rules of science,” said Stock, who provided board members with literature on his claims.
Several attendees of the school board meeting, most of whom were Mt. Vernon parents, called for an end to masking and quarantining.
“I am a very involved mom, and I know what is best for my children, and I know how to keep my children safe,” said Brook Jones of McCordsville. “Not anyone else, only me.”
In an email to the Daily Reporter, Mt. Vernon referred to Gov. Eric Holcomb’s executive order that acknowledges the state health department’s authority to issue communicable disease control measures, which require schools to conduct contact tracing, require those who test positive to isolate, and require close contacts to quarantine.
“It is notable from a legal and political standpoint that these control measures do not come from any declaration of disaster or emergency, but, rather, derive from the Indiana Communicable Disease Statute that covers many common diseases from AIDS to chickenpox,” the message states, adding the statute establishes that failure to comply is a Class B misdemeanor, with each day of noncompliance constituting a separate offense.
If students are going to have to stay home due to being a close contact, Mt. Vernon needs to provide better at-home learning opportunities, parents also said. The school corporation agrees, and plans to have them ready by Aug. 20.
The school board decided to table its decision on adding COVID-positive totals per school building to the health and safety plan, and to take time to process everything that was shared at the meeting.
“I believe we have an obligation to, one, find the facts that were shared today,” board member Shannon Walls said. “We have not had a chance to review that information ourselves as a board. I think we have an obligation to our students to know what our academic plan is moving forward.”
Greenfield-Central
Harold Olin, Greenfield-Central superintendent, told the Daily Reporter in an email Monday that the school district has had 26 students test positive for the novel coronavirus since the first day of school on July 29. From those cases, 276 close contacts were identified.
In accordance with Indiana Department of Health guidelines, all un-vaccinated close contacts are excluded from school attendance, unless they have had the novel coronavirus in the last 90 days, Olin said.
“We intend to continue under the same protocols that we started the year with,” Olin said, adding that could change upon receiving guidance from the state or county health departments.
Southern Hancock
When the Indiana Department of Health updated the number of COVID-19 cases at schools across the state on Monday with data through last Friday, Southern Hancock had fewer than five new student cases at New Palestine Elementary School and New Palestine High School, respectively, as well as fewer than five new staff cases at the high school. The district’s first day was Aug. 3.
“I think our teachers are managing things pretty well in the classroom,” said Wes Anderson, director of school and community relations for the school corporation. “Honestly, where the close contacts really start to climb on you is on the bus.”
Eastern Hancock
As of Monday morning, Eastern Hancock Community School Corporation, which started on Aug. 4, had identified one positive case, a student at the elementary school. Sixteen other students were identified as close contacts and required to quarantine.
EH superintendent George Philhower said the corporation is tracking close contacts by assigning seating charts everywhere students spend time, including classrooms, lunch tables and buses. Eastern Hancock had planned to allow parents to sign a form opting their student out of missing school due to contact tracing, which would also waive any responsibility of the corporation if the student did test positive for COVID-19. That policy was revised due to federal requirements, and all students will have to quarantine.
“It’s going as well as it could, but we certainly would prefer not to worry about COVID-19,” Philhower said. “It would be great if 100% of our attention could be focused on learning.”
Jessica Karins of the Daily Reporter staff contributed to this story.
[sc:pullout-title pullout-title=”By the numbers” ][sc:pullout-text-begin]
COVID-19 data through early Monday, Aug. 9
Hancock County
- 149 new tests administered (Aug. 4-8)
- 14 new cases (Aug. 8)
- 9.5% seven-day (July 27-Aug. 2) positivity rate all tests, 8.7% cumulative rate
- 0 new deaths
- 121,642 total tests administered
- 8,984 total cases
- 15.6% seven-day (July 27-Aug. 2) positivity rate, 19% cumulative rate
- 152 total deaths
- 39,199 age 12+ fully vaccinated (58.9% of that population)
Indiana
- 12,808 new tests administered (April 17, 2020-Aug. 8, 2021), 3,997 new individuals tested
- 1,208 new cases (Aug. 8)
- 9% seven-day (July 27-Aug. 2) positivity rate all tests, 8.4% cumulative rate
- 0 new deaths
- 11,429,224 total tests administered
- 786,272 total cases
- 17.3% seven-day (July 27-Aug. 2) positivity rate, 21.2% cumulative rate
- 13,634 total deaths
- 430 total probable deaths
- 55% ICU beds in use – non-COVID
- 12.5% ICU beds in use – COVID
- 32.5% ICU beds available
- 18.3% ventilators in use – non-COVID
- 4.3% ventilators in use – COVID
- 77.4% ventilators availble
- Hospital census: 1,161 total COVID-19 patients (890 confirmed, 271 under investigation)
- Delta variant: 87.2% of samples this month
- Not variant of concern: 7.3% of samples this month
- Alpha variant: 2.9% of samples this month
- Gamma variant: 2.6% of samples this month
- Beta variant: 0% of samples this month
- 103 total cases of multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children
- 2,982,477 age 12+ fully vaccinated (50.9% of that population)
- 5,323 breakthrough cases (0.179% of fully vaccinated individuals)
- 185 breakthrough hospitalizations (0.006% of fully vaccinated individuals)
- 69 breakthrough deaths (0.002% of fully vaccinated individuals)
Source: Indiana Department of Health
[sc:pullout-text-end][sc:pullout-title pullout-title=”If you go” ][sc:pullout-text-begin]
WHAT: Mt. Vernon School Board meeting
WHEN: 7 p.m. Monday, Aug. 16
WHERE: Mt. Vernon Administration Building, 1806 W. State Road 234, Fortville
WHY: The board will revisit a discussion on the district’s health and safety plan
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