Members of the Fatima R-3 school board and Superintendent Chuck Woody attended the Osage County Commission meeting Tuesday, Sept. 14, to argue for their drafted “Fatima School District Reopening Plan,” which codifies transmission and risk levels. It all but eliminates quarantine of asymptomatic students not tested positive for COVID. Self-quarantine is honored without penalty during times of low spread of the disease. They would be recommended during moderate spread. Quarantine would be required only during periods of substantial spread. It also reduces the number of times masks are required.

Another key component to the plan is the use of three feet, rather than six, of social distancing in classrooms. That’s with or without masks. The district maintains that to have children in school in any normal way, six feet is, on occasion, undoable. Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS) policy calls for three feet when using masks, insisting on six feet without masks.

The draft is modeled after a program now in place at the neighboring Blair Oaks school district at Wardsville, which has represented its system to be successful when questioned by Westphalia personnel.

Commissioners immediately established at the beginning of the discussion that the school district has final responsibility for its policy. Commissioners were anxious to host and facilitate the dialogue but they emphasized there would be no legislation forthcoming on their part. 

Osage County Health Department (OCHD) Administrator Kim Sallin attended and repeated her past assertions that her authority in dealing with schools is similarly limited. She continues to issue strong guidance. She involves her department in contact tracing and subsequent quarantine recommendations but Sallin has no enforcement capability or authority.

The school board, though, was anxious to have some level of approval from OCHD for its policy. Sallin refused to give it. She brought copies of the DHSS communicable disease policy. She highlighted passages that she thought conflicted with the Fatima document. She then emphasized that she had no enforcement mechanism to penalize her constituents. However, DHHS has many punitive measures over her should she give contradictory guidance. 

“My hands are tied on this,” she asserted. “I have a lot of concerns about the policy.”

Fatima school board member Suzanne Massman, RN, raised what she felt were inconsistencies. They were in comparison with what’s going on at Blair Oaks. 

“Teaching with masks on is very difficult,” said Massman. “It’s just so frustrating when things are miscommunicated.”

She also emphasized why they want the OCHD approval. “We don’t want to make that call,” she said. “We’ve been thrown under the bus too many times. Parents get very upset with us.”

Sallin had an answer for the Blair Oaks controversy. As close as Wardsville is to Westphalia, it is in a different county. The Cole County Health Department has maintained a rather hands-off posture when dealing with the schools in a much more populous jurisdiction. So Blair Oaks has neither sought nor received, approval or resistance from Cole County. However, even if that had taken place, it still is outside Sallin’s field of responsibility. She can, and chooses to, have a lot of interaction with Osage County schools and parents. Her contact tracing, especially, can be more comprehensive. It can contain more instruction about face masks, social distancing, and quarantines. 

“I can’t speak for directors of other health departments in other counties for other schools,” she said. 

Sallin also identified larger counties, Cole and Boone particularly, as hotbeds of inconsistency. This is especially true when it comes to recommendations to schools. “Most administrators [in those areas] are fed up with the consistent inconsistency,” she said. “Teachers are stressed out to the max about everything.”

Another perceived inconsistency raised by Massman had to do with an experiment done at St. Joseph School at Westphalia, which Fatima administrators became aware of after the fact. They would have liked to try the same approach but didn’t know about it. Sallin responded that St. Joseph administrators approached her and asked to try it, and Sallin agreed. Unfortunately, the program, an in-school quarantine room, failed to limit case transmissions. Knowing its experimental nature, Sallin was not free to promote it until it proved to work. Understanding the explanation, Massman commented, “It all looks great on paper.”

“Contained classrooms will not be recommended by the health department anymore,” concluded Sallin.

Another controversy involved an incident before Sallin became OCHD Administrator involving a case in which the OCHD appeared to take a family’s word over information from the school. 

Sallin promised to never allow that to happen now that she’s in charge. “We won’t tell a family their child is lying,” she explained. “But we will tell them we have to make our recommendations based on what the school is telling us.”

It became apparent a major area of concern is extracurricular activity, especially sports. A majority of students are involved outside of the classroom. Wanting to stay in practice and the lineups for games, athletes resist testing. This is a service Fatima can offer that larger districts cannot. However, all agreed most positive cases result from tests outside of school. School testing is not grounding that many athletes. 

“I believe the opportunity to test at your school is a great benefit,” said Sallin. “It’s something fantastic that you provide.”

Woody brought up what he perceived to be conflicts with school bus boarding. Westphalia is unusual in that parochial school students share buses with public school students. This is rare around the nation, but accepted practice in Osage County. United States Center for Disease Control (CDC) policy is clear and universal on bus ridership. Masks are mandated. However, enforcement of the mandate is not equal between the schools in Westphalia. “The communication has got to get better,” he emphasized.

Sallin expressed sympathy for frustration shared by students, teachers, parents, administrators, and school boards. She understood this was difficult for Fatima with a neighboring district doing things differently. 

Sallin summarized her position, though. “It can happen that way at Fatima, but it won’t be with the health department’s approval,” she asserted. “We’re going to tell [parents] our guidelines about the quarantine.” 

She added that should the draft proposal be implemented, quarantine letters would go to every home in every positive case tested and tracked.