PW-S District hopes to keep kids in school with test clinic

A free, rapid-response testing clinic intended to keep students and staff members who don’t have Covid-19 in school and those that have the virus at home opened Monday at Port Washington High School. 

At the same time, the number of Covid-19 cases in the school district, where masks were mandated in three schools because of infection rates, has dropped from 73 students and staff members at the beginning of the month to 31 on Oct. 8, Director of Special Services Duane Woelfel told the Port Washington-Saukville School Board Monday. 

Asked in an interview if he thought masks played a role in the decreasing infection rate, Woelfel said, “It’s hard to tell for sure, but they certainly didn’t hurt.”

Mitigation strategies such as mask-wearing and the new testing clinic are key to the district’s strategy for combating the virus, which last month began racing through schools.

“What people don’t always realize is that in addition to students, this affects staff members, and there were times when we were fairly short on teachers,” Woelfel said. “A few schools had to get creative when it came to covering classrooms.”

One of the challenges of keeping Covid-19 under control while not sending students and staff members home needlessly is determining quickly who has the coronavirus and who is suffering from an ailment that shares its symptoms, such as the common cold.

According to district policy, which  is based on guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, students and staff members who have Covid-19 symptoms must quarantine for 10 days or until they receive a negative test.

That’s where the testing clinic at Port High comes in, administrators said. 

The clinic, run by Summit Clinical Laboratories through a Wisconsin Department of Health Services program, offers free tests to all district students and staff members as well as the people they live with from 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Mondays through Fridays.

Results are typically available within two to three hours, Woelfel said, which can be the difference between students missing a class period or two and being out of school for days.

“Right away on Monday, a student came to the office with symptoms,” Woelfel said. “A parent came to the school, he (the student) got a test and a few hours later he was back in class after it came back negative.”

At Monday’s School Board meeting, Thomas Jefferson Middle School teacher Laura Rashid, speaking on behalf of the Port Washington-Saukville Education Association, praised the clinic.

“We want to thank you for your role in getting the testing site up and running at the high school,” she said. “I think it’s another way to keep our kids in school.”

Sherri Kultgen, also a middle school teacher, said the clinic comes as educators continue to worry about the health and education of their students.

“It’s certainly not back to normal yet,” she said. “We’re deeply concerned about our students who are sick and with keeping them up to speed with their education.”

But the announcement of the clinic, made by the district in an email sent to parents on Oct. 8, sparked conspiracy theories spread on social media, including one that claimed the district planned to conduct required, random testing of students.

The district responded with another email to parents on Monday that read in part, “Testing is not being required of anyone, and the district is not doing a random sampling of students.”

At Monday’s meeting, Woelfel said, “I just want to be very clear — this is a voluntary service. It’s a service intended to get kids back in class, because if the test is negative, students can get back to class or back to an activity quickly.”

School officials noted that students can only be tested with the consent of their parent. Parents must first file a consent form with the district, which can be revoked, then fill out a registration form on the day of the test.

“Every time a child is tested it requires a form to be filled out by a parent,” Abigail Monroe, the district’s nurse, said.

While none of the parents who attended the meeting directly addressed the testing clinic, one father told School Board members he was concerned a district vaccination clinic will be next.

“The difference between promoting the vaccine and mandating the vaccine can be a very slippery slope,” Aaron Christensen said. 

Woelfel said that while voluntary school vaccination clinics may be useful in areas where vaccines are not readily available, they are not needed in the Port-Saukville School District because of the availability of Covid-19 shots.

“The reality is there’s not a plan to move forward with a vaccination clinic on site,” he said. “It’s just not necessary here because you can go to Walgreens or Walmart and get a shot.”

Rene Knepfel’s question was not about tests or shots but masks.

“Why are we wearing masks?” she asked, referring to students in school. “Kids are not affected by Covid-19, and if you are one of those people who are affected, we have vaccines.”

According to the CDC, children can become sick from Covid-19 and spread it to others. In addition, the vaccine has not yet been approved for those younger than 12. 

The CDC, American Academy of Pediatrics and Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction recommend universal mask-wearing in schools.

In the Port Washington-Saukville School District, students and staff members are encouraged but not required to wear masks until the infection rate in a particular school reaches 3%, which Dunwiddie and Lincoln Elementary schools and the middle school reached last month.

Once that threshold is reached, students and staff members have to wear masks for at least 20 days and until the infection rate is less than 3%.

With infection rates at all schools below 3%, the mandate was expected to be lifted at Dunwiddie on Wednesday and next week at Lincoln and Thomas Jefferson.

Rashid said middle school students took the mask mandate seriously.

“We’re grateful the mask mandate was adhered to. The students did a great job,” she said. “Fingers crossed that it keeps our students safe and in school.”