Peninsula superintendent, in a cameo on Fox, praises rapid testing as key to school return
Peninsula School District Superintendent Art Jarvis is continuing to look to a pilot coronavirus testing program to continue the district’s attempts to bring back in-person learning, but it is unclear if the program will be funded in the new year.
In an appearance on FOX News on Dec. 5, Jarvis talked about plans to use the pilot testing program to continue attempts to bring back additional in-person schooling.
“We’re one of the few districts that’s doing testing,” Jarvis said on Fox. . “We’ve added that element really to keep that margin of safety and quick response to enable us to go to the next step, add the second grade in and keep extending through the districts.”
In the first week, the pilot program, operated with the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department, found two positive cases.
On the Fox News segment, Jarvis was paired with Dan Stepenosky, superintendent of the Las Virgenes Unified School District in California, which, like Peninsula, has also begun bringing back younger students.
Jarvis said Fox invited him on air followed testimony he gave to a state Senate committee on Nov. 30.
“I’m not sure how or who, but somebody picked up on my testimony in front of the Senate Ways and Means Committee and then invited me to join,” Jarvis said.
In the Fox interview, Jarvis highlighted the success the district has had bring back Kindergartners and first-graders.
“We have K-1 students that have been attending since Sept. 28th, so we’ve had a fairly long run with our youngest students and our special-needs students, and they are thriving. It’s been wonderful.” Jarvis told the Fox interviewer.
Whether more grades can be returned to in-person learning will depend on whether the testing program can be continued, Jarvis told The Gateway.
“Reopening classrooms with K-1 like we did is not cheap,” Jarvis said. “If we are going to return kids to school in person, it’s going to cost money.”
The testing program, which sends health professionals to each district school once a week, is funded by a $7.8 million CARES Act grant. Renewal of the CARES Act has been tied up by a dispute between Republicans and Democrats in Congress.
Carol Rivera, president of the Peninsula Education Association, the teachers’ union, said she was surprised by the superintendent’s appearance on Fox and had to track down the clip.
“After watching the clip, I think I just want to reiterate that it is actually the attention to detail and the safety and mitigation standards and the compliance of our community and staff on maintaining those social distancing and keeping our circle low, that will have the most impact,” she said.
Rivera also expressed concerns about whether the pilot program will continue into the new year.
“I am worried about the sustainability and the scalability of it. We’re testing approximately 1,000 people a week and right now the expenses are covered by the grants and the pilot that we’re part of through the health department and the CARES Act funding,” Rivera said. “As of Dec. 18, the county needs to re-evaluate the pilot and I think they’re working through those pieces.”
Dr. Anthony Chen of the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department (TPCHD) had previously acknowledged in a virtual discussion with parents and staff that there was no guarantee the program would continue beyond this initial pilot due to depleted CARES Act funding.
Rivera said the continuing operation of a testing program would require funding that she isn’t sure the federal government will be able to provide.
“I think there is a financial component if our federal government doesn’t come through with extensions to provide PPE and other things,” Rivera said.
Pierce County reported over 1,900 cases over three days last Friday, Dec. 11, and passed 20,000 cases overall, a threshold that Rivera says shows the pandemic is still present.
“We all desire to get back to in person instruction face to face safely,” Rivera said. “That’s what our efforts are toward, but I think the reality is that we don’t have a handle on the pandemic.”
For Jarvis, the plan remains to continue bringing back students with second grade coming first, a decision that had previously been delayed from Nov. 30.
“Our intent is to get the second grade back to join the K-1,” Jarvis said. “If you ask me when, I’m going to hedge because we’re going to have to basically figure out some of the questions.”
“What if they don’t renew the CARES Act and the funding disappears?” Jarvis asked. “If you run a pilot is that the precursor of trying to scale it up to all schools and all students? I think the evidence right now is that nobody is going to have the funding to do that, with or without federal funds.”
Jarvis said that in the event the pilot program doesn’t continue in 2021, the district is considering other options to continue a modified program that may use self-administered tests.
The health district “is providing a team right now of 15 or 16 people for each of those sites,” Jarvis said. “Some of those tasks could be done by either district personnel, or even volunteers.”
“It’s not intending to do without the health department,” Jarvis said. “Right now, they are carrying the testing program. They’re paying for all the team that comes in, all of the tests, all the processing, and we’re not. We’re the recipient. If it became necessary, or the only way that we could continue, then we would certainly be exploring what we could do.”
In his interview on Fox, Jarvis also noted that students learning remotely are being left behind, and that will be a concern for the future.
“On the remote side of our dual platform, we are seeing more Ds and Fs,” he said. “We’re seeing more students. It’s a bifurcated outcome. We’re seeing kids that a thriving an doing very well, and we’re seeing some kids that are falling away.
“That’s what I think I’m going to concentrate on mostly,” Jarvis added. “We need to figure out this next spring and summer and this year and next year, what are we going to do with the kids that suffered as a result of this pandemic.”
Rivera said that teachers are doing all that they can to reach students, given the challenges that come with remote instruction.
“I think publicly the more that we can talk about the ways people are engaging, I think that’s really important,” Rivera said. “I think that bothers me if the message is that remote instruction is failing all our students.”
Jarvis praised the teacher’s efforts and pointed to outreach efforts to families needing additional help.
Reach Chase Hutchinson at chase.hutchinson@thenewstribune.com
