Greater Latrobe decision to keep schools open amid covid-19 cases draws flak

Greater Latrobe School District’s decision to continue in-person instruction while reporting new covid-19 cases among students has prompted an email response protesting the decision.

The anonymous email, signed “The Parents of the Greater Latrobe School District,” was sent to Superintendent Georgia Teppert on Wednesday. It charged that administrators failed to notify parents of girl athletes who the email claims either contracted the coronavirus or were in close contact with a team member stricken with the virus.

While noting district officials usually don’t respond to anonymous comments, Teppert told the Tribune-Review the email contained inaccuracies.

Among the sports alluded to was girls basketball, which Teppert noted has not yet begun its season.

“When we are notified of a positive (coronavirus) case, we immediately begin our contact tracing,” Teppert said, adding that the district also coordinates its efforts with the state Department of Health. “Every case we’ve known, we’ve investigated” to identify those affected and to begin needed quarantines.

The person who sent the email declined to provide the Tribune-Review with his or her identity, citing fear that the person’s family would suffer “social punishment.”

The email also faulted the district for not requiring students who were quarantined to retest for covid-19 before returning to school.

Teppert said it is the quarantine, not a followup test result, that is crucial. She noted close contacts are required to remain in quarantine for 14 days — or longer, if the close contact occurred within a shared household. A close contact is considered to be someone who was within 6 feet of someone who tests positive for more than 15 consecutive minutes.

She said close contacts are told “even if a test is negative, you still must quarantine your full 14 days.”

Teppert reported at Tuesday’s school board meeting that nine students had tested positive at that point, since school started Aug. 30. The most recent cases in that number were three students at the senior high and one at Latrobe Elementary School.

In subsequent letters posted on the district website, Teppert affirmed that Greater Latrobe schools would remain open while administrators learned Wednesday that six additional students had tested positive — two each at the senior high, the junior high and Latrobe Elementary.

The student cases at the senior high then grew by two more by the end of the week — one on Thursday and another on Friday.

Teppert said Wednesday that a staff member also had tested positive — the first such case since two staffers tested positive in August, before students returned to school. She hasn’t revealed the building assignments of those affected employees.

Teppert said federal health privacy regulations prevent the district from revealing details about individual cases.

State Department of Education guidance cites a coronavirus case total of two to four students and/or staff members during a 14-day period at a single school as one standard calling for closure of the building.

But Teppert indicated the board based its decision to keep the senior high open on the fact that the three cases represent a small percentage of the student body. The high school has 1,235 students, Assistant Superintendent Mike Porembka said.

Teppert noted in her Friday letter that district officials consider “the source of the (coronavirus) infection rather than assuming it was school-spread when determining school closures.”

The email author, noting other neighboring districts have closed schools in response to covid-19 cases, charged that Greater Latrobe officials are trying to “hide what is quickly becoming a growing problem within your school district.”

Teppert said she has been transparent, reporting cases on the district website and at the public school board meeting.

“Each district is unique and each case is unique,” she said at Tuesday’s meeting. “Every school district does what they feel is best for their school community.”

Teppert pointed out that the anonymous email “doesn’t represent the entire Greater Latrobe School District.”