Mountain Brook Schools using metrics to guide attendance plan
As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, Mountain Brook Schools is offering students either a virtual learning option or a traditional option with regular school attendance.
MBS is also using masking, social distancing and other means to help control the pandemic.
Students in junior high and high school are attending school on alternating days to reduce crowding.
Superintendent Dicky Barlow sent out a letter to families on Friday, Sept. 11, to update them on the current plan.
The topic was also on the agenda at a lengthy, well-attended meeting of the board at the MBS offices on Monday, September 14.
The plan is “challenging” for our students, staff and the community, but MBS believes it's “the best approach to keep our schools open,” Barlow said.
For now, the plan will remain in place.
“We appreciate your adaptability and encourage you to continue taking these health and safety precautions seriously,” he told families.In the letter, Barlow shared the public-health metrics MBS officials are following to guide them in making a decision on when the current attendance plan can change safely.
“We all would love to identify a specific target date” for a change, Barlow said.
However, he said the “best process” in changing the district plan is to use metrics developed with the help of the Jefferson County Department of Health.
MBS officials are looking at data on a daily and weekly basis and will announce a specific date to return to a more traditional school environment when the metrics indicate it’s safe to do so.
These are the metrics listed by MBS:
- The average daily incidence of COVID-19 cases over one week has been less than 10 cases per day per 100,000 population in Jefferson County, or an average of 66 cases per day.
- The positive rate for COVID-19 tests over one week in Jefferson County has been less than 5%.
- Jefferson County is in green or yellow (low or moderate risk) on the Alabama Department of Public Health’s Risk Indicator Map.
- Local school data shows positivity, contact and absentee rates in the school system remain atmanageable levels.
- These metrics should be observed over a 3-week period.
“We appreciate your adaptability and encourage you to continue taking these health and safety precautions seriously,'' Barlow told families.
Those precautions will allow MBS to mitigate the spread of the virus and “eventually return to traditional school full-time,” he said.
COVID-19 data for Jefferson County can be found on the Alabama Department of Public Health website.