On the evening of Jan. 25, in a vote of 7-2, the board of school directors of the Centennial School District granted students permission to use lockers, something they’ve been prohibited from doing for some time.
While the administration expressed concern that students will congregate at the lockers and potentially spread COVID-19, board members like Mary Alice Brancato argued that it’s unfair to have students lug around heavy backpacks and winter coats all day. The two “no” votes came from Patti Crossan and Shelley Eilenberg. Locker use is on a trial basis until the board’s next meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 8. At that time, the board will be presented with a report from the administration on whether or not the resumed locker use is causing issues. The board is slated to vote again accordingly.
The group also had another tense discussion regarding the health and safety plan. The following revisions for students and staff were passed in a vote of 5-4:
– Quarantine for five days if exposed and not up to date on vaccines (two doses for students ages 5-11, booster for all others over 12). After that, they may return to school or work as long as there’s no symptoms and wear a mask for the next five days. If they’ve had COVID-19 in the last 90 days, they don’t need to quarantine.
– Isolate for five days if they tested positive for COVID. After that, they can return to school or work as long as symptoms are improving, they’ve had no fever for the last 24 hours and they wear a mask for the next five days.
– Absences will be excused and coded as such by attendance. For those who need to stay out longer than 10 days for a positive COVID case, a doctor’s note is needed. Calculations for absence will be based on day zero being the first day of symptoms or exposure to the positive case. The student or staff member needs to complete five full days and can return to school or work on day six.
Samantha Bambino can be reached at sbambino@newspapermediagroup.com
