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CHAMPION -- With 146 students and staff in the Champion school district having to quarantine since the start of school in September because of the coronavirus pandemic, school officials are looking at ways to keep students safely in school.
Superintendent John Grabowski at a recent online town hall session on the district's Facebook page announced Champion is among seven school districts across the state selected by The Ohio State University to be part of a pilot rapid testing system. He said last week a few more COVID-19 cases cropped up at the high school.
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine said last week the number of cases has gone up dramatically -- to around 5,000 per day -- across the state, including a significant number of cases in Mahoning and Trumbull counties with both in the Level Red category. Officials said they believe the uptick is the result of large gatherings at Halloween.
"It is going to be very difficult to keep the cases out of our schools. We want to keep providing in-person learning as long as we possibly can. I felt Champion schools would be a really good candidate for this rapid testing," Grabowski said.
He said the rapid testing system, which will take place at all three school buildings, will help identify how the virus is spreading in and around schools, and also find ways to keep students in school longer even when close contact has been identified. He said the study will begin this month.
Grabowski said when he spoke to the Trumbull County Combined Health District about the 146 students and staff who were quarantined, it was found that not one person contracted the virus from being in a classroom because of the protocols of mask wearing and 6- foot social distancing.
He said OSU and the Ohio Department of Health staff will record data from participating schools by identifying a close contact of someone who tested positive and allow them to participate in the study and evaluation.
Grabowski said the study is being coordinated by Dr. William Miller, who also has done research on HIV.
The testing, which will be done on students only with parental approval, will be a swab test in the nostril four times over a 14-day isolation period. Grabowski said the student or staff will be able to attend classes instead of 14-day isolation at home to see if they get any symptoms.
Previously, someone identified as a close contact would be sent home.
Grabowski said students and staff attending school will be tested first thing in the morning by school nurses who will be trained to do the rapid testing to make sure the close contact does not have the virus. If the test is negative, the student or staff member goes back to class.
"There will be four times of testing over the 14-day period. OSU is trying to prove that a student who is in close contact in a school and are wearing a mask and social distancing does not contract the virus and does not become contagious to others around them," he said.
Grabowski said the results of the study will come out in January to direct to the ODE's guidance on what it takes to be quarantined or isolated from close contact in schools.
"I am very happy we are one of the seven schools that have been chosen to participate in this. We know the virus is around us and our students and parents are getting exposed. What we need to do is protect students and staff," he said.
Grabowski said if every teacher and bus driver who comes in contact with an infected person are quarantined, the district will run out of staff.
Grabowski said the only time students do not have masks is when they are eating lunch.
School officials said there is no cost to the school district or families because the pilot program is being funded by the governor's office. Grabowski said state officials have said the tests are 94 percent accurate.
Students who get sick outside the schools will not be brought back in to be tested.
Grabowski said school nurses, instead of making phone calls that someone is sick and needs to quarantine, will be making calls to participate in the rapid testing program in order to keep the child in school.
He said the district has not seen the virus spread inside the schools from those students who were quarantined.
bcoupland@tribtoday.com