As part of its ongoing review and update of the schools’ mitigation plan, the Wrangell School District has dropped the COVID-19 testing requirement for athletes traveling for games.
The requirement was dropped at the start of the year. Schools Superintendent Bill Burr announced the decision at the December school board meeting, during review of the plan.
Though student-athletes no longer need to test before going out of town for games, the district still encourages it.
“We are still doing optional testing at all schools on a request basis,” Burr said. “We still highly encourage students and staff to test (including athletes before travel). We also have a large number of take-home tests available at all sites.”
Before the requirement was dropped, Burr said tests that had been administered in the first four months of this school year didn’t yield any positive cases. “However, students have tested positive at other Wrangell locations,” he added. “Because the take-home tests do not require results to be filed, it is difficult to declare a specific number.”
Members of the community have been pressing for the requirement to be dropped, citing the guidelines put forth by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and what other schools in Southeast require.
“On Nov. 17, the Parent Advisory Committee voted to drop the student-athlete COVID testing and also drop COVID return-to-play protocol policy from the current mitigation plan,” the advisory committee wrote in a letter to the school board. “ASAA, the governing body for Alaska high school sports, dropped both at the beginning of the school year. No other high school in Southeast Alaska has these policies in their current mitigation plans. With our current testing policy, this puts Wrangell student-athletes at a disadvantage in relation to all other schools they compete against. Our current testing policies go against the updated CDC recommendations endorsed by the secretary of education for all K-12 schools.”
As of Dec. 22, the CDC reported Wrangell’s COVID-19 case rate was low. The agency recommends people stay up to date with vaccines and boosters, maintain ventilation improvements, avoid contact with people suspected or confirmed to have COVID-19 and isolate if they have the virus. It also recommends masking for symptomatic people when indoors in public.
About 63% of Wrangell’s population had completed their primary series of the COVID-19 vaccine as of Jan. 3, compared to the state average of 57%, according to the Alaska Health Department website.
Despite what other districts in Southeast were requiring, Burr said it is up to each one to decide how to best keep its student population safe. Wrangell’s school district is required to have a mitigation plan in place since it received federal pandemic aid funding which runs until September 2024.
The mitigation plan “includes decisions on a number of different items, including masking, testing and other health/cleaning protocols,” Burr said. “We have had one of the highest rates of COVID at times in the Southeast area but have recently kept the numbers of identified cases lower.”
Burr said the amount of COVID-19 testing in the schools was reduced by 96% at the start of the school year and changing the athlete testing requirement before travel will reduce that number further. The mitigation plan is reviewed at every school board meeting and changes are made as needed, when CDC or state guidelines change or a historical pattern can be seen.
The district continues to try to make the best decisions to protect the students, Burr said, and it depends on the community for help. “We continue to have one of the worst illness seasons in many years across the district, state and nation,” he said. “The (district’s) symptom-free schools policy is an important factor in providing our Wrangell students with a well-rounded and successful education.”
The symptom-free school policy is aimed at students and staff exhibiting symptoms of any possibly contagious illness such as COVID-19, flu and colds.
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