PAGE A8, KEIZERTIMES, MAY 21, 2021
How McNary is responding to COVID cases
BY MATT RAWLINGS
Of the Keizertimes
After over a year of distance learning
due to the COVID-19 pandemic, McNary
High School has been in their hybrid
model — where students come on campus
twice per week for in-person instruction —
for just over a month.
“It has been as good as I could have ever
dreamed. Kids are wearing their masks and
they are super excited about being in the
building. I talk to the staff a lot and the
feedback we receive from our teachers and
our instructional assistants is that they
have felt valued in terms of us listening to
any concerns that they have had,” McNary
principal Erik Jesperesen said.
With students and staff back in the
building, school and district personnel
were aware that the chance of COVID-
19 coming into the schools was almost a
guarantee. But due to the preparation from
the school and the safety protocols from
the district, the risk of students and staff
contracting the virus inside the school is
extremely low.
Since hybrid learning began on April
13, McNary has had only three positive
COVID-19 cases on-site while infectious,
which led to five additional students need-
ing to quarantine for 14 days — this is out of
1,627 students currently enrolled in hybrid
at McNary.
Jespersen made headlines back in
November with an aggressive approach to
safe, in-person learning in an effort to help
the 38% of students at McNary that had at
least one failing grade — that percentage
fell to 17% in less than a month. Four weeks
before hybrid learning began, Jesperesen
continued the aggressive approach as
McNary was hosting 900 students appoint-
ments per week, which helped the school
prepare for when more kids came back to
class.
“McNary had a lot of practice with
implementing the protocols because they
invited so many students in for limited
in-person instruction, so I think that has
also led to the success,” Salem-Keizer
Public Schools (SKPS) communications
manager Aaron Harada said.
“I don’t think there was anyone any-
where close to that. We were bringing in
a ton of kids for a solid month,” Jespersen
added.
While most secondary schools in the
district have had COVID cases, there
haven’t been any school outbreaks in the
Salem-Keizer area.
“We are not seeing schools as a place
where COVID is actually being spread
within the school setting,” said Jodi
Peterson, the health safety manager
with SKPS. “I think students are doing
an amazing job of not coming to school
sick and families are really trying to not
bring their kids while they are sick.”
While the district isn’t seeing stu-
dents or faculty spreading the virus in
a school setting, Peterson did say that
when the virus does come into schools,
it is because a student or staff member
contracted COVID-19 from someone
in the community and stepped foot on
campus during their infectious period
when they weren’t showing symptoms
— an infectious period usually takes place
in the two days before someone shows
symptoms.
“We are seeing students and families
that were in the community and then they
come into the building during their infec-
tious period,” Peterson said.
When a student or staff member con-
tracts COVID-19 and was confirmed to step
foot in the school and be around multiple
people, the school’s nurse team jumps into
action to perform contact tracing protocols.
“One way or another, someone on our
nurse team will be speaking to the stu-
dents' family, going over a slew of ques-
tions about when symptoms started, if they
had a known COVID exposure, what are
their symptoms, when were they last on
site, are they riding the bus and if they are
involved in any extracurricular activities.
We also ask if they carpooled with anyone,”
said Megan Jackson, the school nurse at
McNary. “And then it’s going and talking
to the teachers of that student and finding
out what they know about the students day
like who they sat with and who they worked
with.”
Anyone who tests positive for the virus
and any students that were in close contact
with the infected student — close contact
equals people that were closer than six feet
away from the infected person for 15 min-
utes or more — would have to quarantine
for 14 days, and the same protocols are in
place for teachers and staff. According to
Peterson, the district hasn’t seen the virus
spread to close contacts at the school.
When there is a COVID-19 case at
McNary, Jespersen sends out an email and
autodial phone call to every parent notify-
ing them of the situation — the school only
reaches out personally to close contacts.
Jespersen says that the information has
been received well by McNary parents.
“The first time I sent it out, there was
a little bit of chatter about the email. But
after the last couple times I sent out the
cohort has to be quarantined
for two weeks.
We are not seeing
For the 18,000 secondary
students currently in hybrid
schools as a place where
learning, 120 of them had to
COVID is actually being
quarantine in the first three
spread within the school
weeks due to protocols when
an infected student rode to
setting.
school via bus.
“That is one of the big-
gest barriers we are having,”
— JODI PETERSON
Health safety manager , SKPS
Peterson said. “It is really
affecting students being able
to return to school. It is a really
hard process.”
email and autodialers to families and staff,
SKPS plans to return to in-person
I had zero reaction. I think everyone pretty
much knows that if we had somebody in the school five days per week next fall, and
building that tested positive, and unless even though there isn’t a policy in place
they have been specifically contacted it for next school year, Jespersen says that
doesn’t really affect them,” Jespersen said. McNary will continue to be a safe place to
“I have had no complaints from parents. attend.
“The one thing I have learned since
It is 2021, the most divisive time we have
had in a long time, but for the vast major- March of last year is that things are chang-
ity of our community, they understand that ing all the time. We are going to do every-
we are trying to do right by kids and give thing we can to make sure we are fully
them the best possible education that we compliant with what the state is asking
can. Honestly, it is butterflies and unicorns us to do, while providing every possible
opportunity for kids to have all the edu-
here at McNary High School.”
“The families have been amazing. The cational opportunities they need to have,”
biggest concern they have had is the bus Jespersen said. “Our schools are extremely
safe. If parents have concerns they should
cohort,” Peterson added.
According to guidelines from the contact us and we would be more than
Oregon Health Authority, if a student with happy to have conversations with them,
COVID-19 was on a school bus for more but this is a safe place to go to school and
than a total of 15 minutes, the entire bus to work,” Jespersen said.