“If we did this mask policy from the beginning, we probably wouldn’t be where we are now,” added Sonia Vazquez, a local nurse.Īnother parent, CarrieAnn Pope, pointed to the financial burden that the COVID cases pose with an average of 65 cases among students per day. “I know you know that this is spreading and it is in the schools,” she said. Leslie Fuller, a parent of five kids, two of which are high-risk, said “doctors need to be leading the way.” “I want to make sure we don’t overwhelm local pediatric ICU beds.” “I know there are legal issues involved, but if they resolve I ask that you do this,” said Barnes. Elizabeth Barnes spoke to the board, recommending universal masking in schools based on guidance from the American Academy of Pediatrics. They want to make schools safer for students and teachers. The difficulty in reporting, he said, is the take-home tests rely on people self-reporting to the Health Department and those self-reports getting added to the dashboard.Īt Monday’s meeting, parents said they didn’t want to return to lockdowns and remote learning. Superintendent Marcus Chambers agreed saying there was “absolutely” a backlog in COVID reporting. “And it’s happening because we don’t have any testing sites.”Īppleberg said she had to travel to Andalusia to get a COVID test, but when she contacted the Health Department, she was told her positive case wouldn’t count in Okaloosa. “We have schools that are saying there’s zero cases for staff and you have five staff that are currently out and they’re (COVID) positive,” she said. Last week, the president of the teachers union, Jordan Appleberg, expressed concerns about the district’s reporting to the board, saying the dashboard wasn’t up to date. But concerns are that the number underrepresents the spread. 10, there have been more than 1,500 reported COVID cases of students. It is clear you don’t really care how many times I have to shove Q-tips deep into my kids’ nasal cavities.” I was trying to schedule a (COVID) test but there was nothing available locally. “One week ago, our children had to be quarantined because of exposure. “There’s almost no mitigation (against the virus),” he said. He spoke about being notified that one of his daughter’s teachers was out for a week because of COVID and that students would be split up among classrooms. Josh Ashley is a father of a kindergartener and first-grader. No action was taken by the board after about two hours of public comments. Most asked the board to consider a mask policy to help protect children from the highly infectious Delta variant. ![]() More than a dozen parents addressed the Okaloosa County School Board Monday evening with concerns about the COVID surge in the district.
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