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Posted: Dec 15, 2020 4:07 AMUpdated: Dec 15, 2020 5:58 AM

BPS Officials Explain Why Classes are Remote This Week Despite Not Hitting Set Metrics

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Tom Davis
The Bartlesville Public Schools Board of Education met Monday for its regularly scheduled meeting, which mostly pertained to why the schools were in remote learning mode despite not hitting the originally set metrics.
 
For several months the district has tracked its staffing, the number and frequency of site-level positive cases and close contact quarantines, and overall site absenteeism. Those metrics are used to determine if a site would need to transition to Distance Learning.
 
Granger Meador, who heads up the Bartlesville Public Schools Pandemic Response Committee, said on Monday that they have been watching a surge of cases just before Thanksgiving which was followed by a downturn and then an uptick in case that he says was straining our hospitals.
 
To help protect students and their families, along with staff members, during times of high community spread and overburdened hospitals, the district announced a transition to district-wide Distance Learning if the following criteria are met simultaneously for three consecutive days:
 
  • the seven-day rolling average of the City of Bartlesville's COVID-19 new cases is in the “red zone” of over 50/100,000 (please note that is for the city, not Washington County)

 

  • while both the Northeast and Tulsa regions of the state’s hospital surge plan are in “Tier 4 status” with over 40-percent of staffed hospital beds with patients who are COVID-19 positive
 
The issue concerning some parents is that the hospitals have not been in Tier 4 status -- something Meador acknowledged. According to Granger, the focus shifted to available ICU beds.
 
Another issue brought up at the school board meeting was how the spread of COVID-19 could affect staff--especially those in the older age groups. Meador outlined the risk factors for older people during his presentation.
 
 
Due to the safety concerns from high community spread and health care impacts, all district extracurricular activities, including spectator sports, assemblies, and performances, are suspended during this district-wide Distance Learning period initiated by that standalone trigger. That is distinct from site-based Distance Learning periods in which extracurricular activities could proceed in the absence of concerns about a super-spreader event.
 
The district publicly tracks that data and other metrics on its COVID-19 Resources page at bpslearn.com.
 
 
 

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