PARIS — As COVID-19 restrictions have been lifted but guidance changes as the Delta variant becomes the dominant virus strain, SAD 17 has formed a response team to manage recommendations for the district. The team will meet regularly to review Maine Center for Disease Control and Maine Department of Education public health guidance and data on vaccination rates, community transmission rates, hospitalization rates, and other COVID-related metrics.
According to SAD 17 Superintendent Monica Henson, the team will meet via Zoom to formulate the district’s response to guidelines as they may change. Henson will decide what recommendations will be forwarded to the Board of Directors for consideration and execution.
Currently, face coverings are required by anyone using bus transportation as mandated by the state. Henson said Oxford Hills will take a wait and see approach after participating in a superintendents’ webinar with Maine CDC Director Dr. Nirav Shah.
“There were more questions than answers,” Hansen told viewers last week during a Facebook Live broadcast she has been hosting on Friday afternoons. “Currently we don’t have any mandates or requirements coming from the state. “All decisions will be of … the local school board,” barring any public health emergencies that would result in state officials determining restrictions.
She announced that the response team will meet weekly to stay abreast of changing guidelines and potential mandates.
“I know there are other districts starting to announce ‘we will have masks,’ or ‘we will not have masks,'” Henson said, adding she believes those decisions are premature. “During the webinar with Dr. Shah, there was literally … a change from the national CDC. The guidance will be shifting as the situation develops and to make recommendations … it’s premature.”
Henson will advise the school board at its next regular meeting on August 16 that no decisions be made about COVID-19 protocols in schools until the week before school starts on Sept. 1.
She said that there have been no cases detected during summer school and other activities in the buildings.
The COVID-19 response team members are: Superintendent Monica Henson; Assistant Superintendent Patrick Hartnett; Director of Facilities David Coburn; Director of Food Service Michael Mayberry; Principal representatives Ted Moccia of Oxford Comprehensive High School, Lori Pacholski of Paris Elementary School and Brian Desilets of Oxford Hills Middle School; Oxford Hills Educators’ Association President Michael Morrell; District Chief Medical Director Kate Herlihy of Western Maine Pediatrics; and School Nurse Director Beth Gallagher.
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