PCAB Joins City Leaders to Demand Updated COVID Testing and Mask Protocol for Baltimore City Public Schools

On January 5, Chair Larry Simmons joined city leaders like Councilmember Zeke Cohen,  Councilmember Odette Ramos, students and other community leaders to discuss the community effort to protect City School students against COVID-19.

 

Read Chair Larry Simmons' full statement below:

As a board composed entirely of volunteers, PCAB recognizes the critical importance of in-person learning to our city’s young people and their families.  We, however, have a responsibility to families also to advocate for their voices to be heard.  Now more than ever, we want to ensure that Baltimore’s leaders, at all levels, hear what families have to say.


Obviously, not every family is the same, and they have differing views on whether schools or the district should move to remote learning or keep kids in person.  But given that schools will be open for student testing tomorrow, the most common areas of concern we hear from families are around #1 Masking and #2 Testing.


  1. Masking.  Baltimore City Health Commissioner Dr. Dzirasa recommends KN94, KN95, N95 masks or double masking. We are hearing too often of school-based parent groups fundraising to purchase masks for students who arrive at school without them each day.  The district’s own Partners in Education portal featured many postings during the fall from schools looking urgently for community partners to donate masks.  The district should be accountable to schools for ensuring that every school has sufficient high-quality masks like the ones Dr. Dzirasa has recommended on hand to meet the need for this critical part of its layered strategy.  School staff and parent volunteers should not feel like they need to fundraise or seek donations in the community for masks.  

  2. Testing.  COVID testing is non-invasive and should be required for all unless a parent takes action to opt-out.  We’re hearing of testing consent rates well below 50% in some schools, where the opt-in consent form serves as a barrier that compromises the safety of all families.  Furthermore, the pooled testing model that the district relies on at the elementary school level takes a day or two for results in the face of a quickly-moving virus that one in 25 Marylanders have tested positive for in just the past month.  The district should be using individual rapid tests as soon as possible after returning from a break without waiting for pooled results in order to identify infectious students before it’s too late.

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