Melrose Schools Has A Plan Amid Unprecedented COVID-19 Spike

MELROSE, MA — School officials are taking extra precautions before welcoming students back from a winter break that has seen the most aggressive COVID-19 outbreak yet.

As of Friday night, Melrose Public Schools is expecting to be open Monday morning. Some school districts have already canceled class amid the virus surge, which has prompted the state's largest teachers union to call for Massachusetts to close school Monday.

Melrose Superintendent Julie Kukenberger detailed plans for bringing students back on Mayor Paul Brodeur's "Brodeur Bulletin" podcast and in an email to parents Thursday.

For school employees, the state has provided enough KN-95 masks for each staff member to have one each school day for six weeks.

The state also provided rapid antigen tests for staff to use before returning to school Monday. Employees can pick them up between 9:30 - 11:30 a.m. at the high school entrance. The district is encouraging staff to use one test within 24 hours of returning to school and save the other, though employees aren't required to test before returning.

With cases in the schools (336 since Sept. 1 as of Friday night) and city (353 the last two weeks alone, according to Thursday's public health data) skyrocketing, the district is working to make for the safest return to school possible.

Most of the questions parents have asked recently have been about recess and lunch.

"Lunch and snack time are the two highest-risk times of day," Kukenberger said on the podcast. "Recess is really less of a worry because students are outside."

A challenge during lunchtime is a lack of staffing to watch students, meaning more kids spend more time closer together. Kukenberger said the district is hiring lunch monitors at $20/hour and anyone interested can contact Diane Hogan.

Students are able to eat outdoors when possible. The district is using assigned seating at the elementary level and QR scanning at the high school level to help with contact tracing.

Students who have tested positive with an at-home antigen test over the break should be reporting the results to the district if they cannot get a PCR test. (Mayor Paul Brodeur, acknowledging the difficulty in getting tested at the Square One Mall, said on his podcast he has spoken to the state about expanding access.)

Kukenberger pointed to the multi-pronged risk mitigation strategy already in place.

The district will will be continuing its usual pool testing next week. (Students who have tested positive for COVID-19 in the past 90 days shouldn't participate in the testing.)

Students are also encouraged to wash hands, socially distance when possible, get vaccinated if eligible, wear well-fitting masks and stay home if they have symptoms.

While many have been discouraged by the unprecedented surge and new fears of spread, officials say there may be reason for optimism. Health Director Anthony Chui pointed to the new federal and state guidance cutting isolation time for asymptomatic COVID-positive people from 10 to five days as the system working.

"Some of these guidances from the [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] are already showing us that there is a way out of this pandemic," he said on the podcast.

Brodeur implored people to keep their guard up in order to move forward.

"We're all done with COVID, but COVID's not done with us," the mayor said. "Everything that you can do helps you, helps your family and helps the community get to the next step."

Mike Carraggi can be reached at mike.carraggi@patch.com. Follow him on Twitter @PatchCarraggi and Instagram at Melrose Happening. Subscribe to Melrose Patch for free local news and alerts and like us on Facebook