According to the Burbank Unified School District’s Covid-19 Dashboard, there have been 682 cases reported amongst students in the two weeks that schools have been opened. There have also been 96 staff members that have confirmed cases.
The 682 cases are just under 5% of the 15,308 students enrolled in schools but the adults have a higher rate with just over 5% of the 1,820 reported.
These numbers are for students who voluntarily have tested. Schools officials have sent repeated reminders to parents to check their children for symptoms before sending them to school. However, for students who may be asymptomatic and may have Covid-19, there is no current check, and those students may come to school and spread the virus without realizing it.
School officials have not mandated testing because they said they are unable to secure test kits although they gave a test kit to all students the first week of school and at their last meeting reported on about one-third of parents had taken the test and reported their findings to the school. It is unclear as to why those tests were not used for mandatory testing.
Board Member Steve Ferguson said that Los Angeles Unified, which mandates testing, is able to do so because the State considers them such a large district, they need to have any resources that they need while Burbank is a smaller affluent District, so they do not get the same assistance. He has vowed to start a sub-committee and talk to State Senators about the situation.
Among the schools, Burroughs High School has 127 cases from 2,372 students while Burbank High is less than half of that with 65 cases from their 2,466 students
Middle schools have seen the majority of cases with 95 amongst students while staff has the most cases with 9 of the 120 adults reporting positive in the past two weeks.
At the upcoming Board of Education meeting on January 20, the Board will receive a “Report on the Burbank Unified School District’s COVID-19 Response” from Superintendent Matt Hill. There is nothing else on the agenda concerning testing.
The meeting will be held in-person at Burbank City Hall at 7 pm.
What’s the end game to all of this costly spending on tests when we know for certain that everyone is eventually going to catch this virus? Until this question can be answered with clarity then we shouldn’t be spending another dime on what amounts to little more than security theatre.
I would be interested in more information about the disparity of vaccinations reported on the BUSD COVID dashboard rates between Burbank High School (at 24.30%) and JBHS (at 77.20%). Any insights?
C’mon Chris. The idea is to do our best to slow the spread as best as we can. The tools available are limited but testing is the best way to do that. Why? With this info we can try and keep hospitals from being overwhelmed and as few people coming into contact with the infected as possible. It’s far from ideal but it’s as good as we have. Otherwise, with your lack of logic, we’re just sticking our heads in the sand and pretending it doesn’t exist and putting no effort into LIMITING the impact. You’re contention that “we’re all going to get it” may or may not be true. Time will tell. But there’s EVERY reason to do what we can to limit exposure and mitigate damage. We’re all gonna die as well, but that doesn’t mean everyone should just go ahead and get it over with already and jump off a cliff, does it? Because that’s what your “logic” would imply.
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