Questioning the Quarantines

Parents and staff members alike were in attendance at the November 16 meeting of the Carbon County School District No. 2 (CCSD2) Board of Trustees to express their concern and frustrations over a “blanket quarantine” issued by Carbon County Public Health for three sports teams in the school district.

As was reported previously (see “Over 100 cases in Carbon County” on page 1 of the November 18 Saratoga Sun), CCSD2 Superintendent Jim Copeland announced the news of the quarantine on November 15 via the CCSD2 website.

Of the three teams, two were the Hanna, Elk Mountain, Medicine Bow (HEM) high school volleyball team and the junior high girls basketball team while the third team was the Saratoga Middle High School (SMHS) junior high girls basketball team.

According to Copeland, the three team quarantines in CCSD2 were in addition to four team quarantines in Carbon County School District No. 1 for a total of seven teams in Carbon County. The superintendent added that, while Carbon County Public Health had stated they were scaling back the amount of contact tracing they would do on an individual level, they would still be involved in congregate situations such as classrooms or sports teams.

Prior to the meeting, the CCSD2 Board of Trustees had met with Amanda Brown, nurse manager for Carbon County Public Health, via Zoom for part of their work session.

“She actually gave us a little more flexibility than we’ve had in the past about these team things because she said that they have no capacity to do detailed contact tracing by looking at the book and trying to figure out who has been in the game. She said that we were welcome to do that, which is kind of a newer flexibility than we knew, to be honest,” said Copeland. “The caveat to that is that the parent of the positive case on the opposing team would have to allow the confidential information to be given to us as far as who it is. We don’t yet know who these particular individuals were for HEM or for Saratoga. All we know is that HEM’s was based on their game with Little Snake River Valley and Saratoga’s was based on a game with one of the Rawlins teams.”

Copeland added that he had talked with O’Kelley H. Pearson, an attorney advising CCSD2 in regards to education and the coronavirus health guidelines, about the potential issues in going against the guidelines from Carbon County Public Health. According to the superintendent, Pearson informed him that the school district could be at risk of litigation if an outbreak occurred.

Additionally, Copeland reached out to the Wyoming Department of Education and was informed that going against public health guidelines would be seen as violating the district’s approved Smart Start Plan and put CCSD2 at risk of losing funding.

Also, according to Copeland, Brown had informed the Board of Trustees that if the district went against the recommendations and guidance of public health, an order would be issued and it would become a legal matter.

“The only good thing that we kind of found out tonight is when she told us that we could look at the book and do some extra contact tracing, which we’re willing to do,” Copeland said. “Our nurses are a little overworked somedays, I’ll be honest, so we may have to call in some coaches and some other people to kind of sit down and do some kind of spreadsheet if and once we get the name of the opposing player.” 

Karen Condict, Board of Trustee member, stated that she felt positive after speaking with Brown as it appeared that the district was allowed more flexibility, as Copeland had mentioned, and that the Board of Trustees could question the blanket quarantines issued by public health.

“I think if we’re, as a group, proactive and work together, we can figure out ways to not quarantine whole teams which was very important to me that we got out of that,” said Bennett.

Prior to opening the floor to public comment, Chairman James Sewell reiterated that the quarantine of the three teams was not a decision of the school district. Both Sewell and Copeland also stated that, according to Brown, the quarantine had been the decision of the Wyoming Department of Health. Greg Bartlett, SMHS athletic director, challenged Brown’s statement, however.

Bartlett informed the Board of Trustees that he had contacted multiple school districts throughout the state in regards to the blanket quarantine and that none of them had experienced anything similar to what had occurred in Carbon County. According to Bartlett, in most cases there was not a quarantine if there was a potential exposure and, in the case of a positive COVID case on a team, the student was quarantined and not the whole team.

“We allowed that type of authority to overrun what Wyoming High School Athletic Association (WHSAA) put together that they approved. I understand things change. Everything is so new but these other schools are not quarantining teams, they’re quarantining individuals,” said Bartlett. “I was in Shoshoni on Saturday. Each one of those schools that I talked to—which was Shoshoni, Wind River and Riverton—they all have students that are being quarantined, there isn’t a team one under quarantine.” 

Bartlett added that, while he was “a sports guy”, he was appearing before the board as an advocate for the students and stated that if enough similar blanket quarantines were issued on teams, the school year would be difficult to continue.

“There’s no kids, there’s no staff, there’s no athletics, there’s no activities,” Bartlett said.

As discussion continued, Vice Chairman Kaycee Alameda asked Copeland who of district staff was on phone calls with Brown or whether the district had a weekly phone call with Carbon County Public Health.

“I will be honest. Part of our frustration is access to Carbon County Public Health and Amanda, in specific,” said Copeland. “The best way that Nikki (Thorn, CCSD2 Nurse) has found to get in contact with her is to text a cell number. If you just call over there, the contact is not there. So the access has been a big frustration on our part, as far as the school.”

“So, potentially, we could talk to her boss, Wayne Couch,” replied Alameda.

“You could if you could find him. He joined one Zoom meeting since last spring,” Copeland said.

As discussion continued, school administrators expressed concerns with both COVID and seasonal illness depleting the number of teachers and staff in addition to working around blanket quarantines. SMHS Principal J.D. Johnson informed the Board of Trustees that his Monday was spent organizing the text books and homework assignments of the students that were unable to come to school.

It was also revealed that, for those team members that were in quarantine, there was no way to have enough negative tests to be able to return to school due to the potential incubation period if they had contracted the virus. Coaches in attendance, however, informed the Board of Trustees that they were willing to put in the extra time and work to determine whether or not a player had been in contact with an opposing player who had tested positive for COVID-19 if it meant limiting the amount of students that would be quarantined.

No formal action was taken following the discussion, though it appeared that the school district had a potential path forward if junior high or high school players were to encounter a similar situation in the future.

The next meeting of the Carbon County School District No. 2 Board of Trustees will be at 5 p.m. on December 17 at the Central Office in Saratoga.