At a meeting on Thursday, Feb. 11, the Mingus Union High School District Governing Board voted 4-1 to return to in-person learning on Monday, Feb. 22. The decision is being made based on the expected second-round COVID-19 vaccinations for teachers and staff in the coming week. Board Member Lori Drake was the lone dissenting vote, arguing that the school district should reopen sooner, taking advantage of the partial immunity to the virus among staff to get students back in school as soon as possible.
“The Moderna Vaccine, which we’re receiving, has about an 80% effectiveness rate two weeks after first dose, which we reached last week,” MUHSD Superintendent Mike Westcott said. “Sometime after dose two, we’ll get the 90% effectiveness.”
“Every day we keep them out of school we are hurting their [education],” Drake said. “They need this, these walls. When I say that the 22nd is not good enough it’s because of the children.”
Principal Genie Gee argued that with President’s Day at the beginning of the week and teachers having to take time off from teaching for vaccinations, the coming week would not be ideal for returning anyway, especially with the potential for adverse reactions to the vaccine after receiving a second dose.
“It’s a very small amount of days,” Gee said.
Westcott also pointed to the declining COVID-19 case spread in the Verde Valley over the past few weeks. While two of benchmarks for school reopening delineated but the Arizona Department of Health Services — COVID cases per 100,000 and test positivity rate — remain in the “substantial spread” category, and the third — hospital admittance for COVID-like illnesses — is in “moderate spread,” Westcott argued that the combination of the decline in cases and the immunity for staff caused by the vaccine would make reopening safe.
“We’re in a four and half week decline in all of the benchmarks,” Westcott said. “I predict the next two updates coming out a week from today are going [to be better].”
Yavapai County Community Health Services Health Education Section Manager Carol Lewis attended the meeting, and argued in favor of the board’s decision, saying that based on what she had seen, school districts that take proper precautions are able to stay open without creating increased spread of the virus.
“From the schools that I’ve been working with, we don’t see a lot of transmission between kids in the classroom,” Lewis said.
Mingus has refrained from in-person learning for longer than any other district in the Verde Valley. The board voted in favor of returning to remote learning on Nov. 19, and then reiterated that decision at meetings on Dec. 3, and Jan. 7.
Meanwhile, the concurrent Cottonwood-Oak Creek School District came back on Jan. 19 and the concurrent Clarkdale-Jerome School District came back on Jan. 25, meaning some elementary students were attending school in Clarkdale, Cottonwood or Cornville while their high school-aged siblings were forced to continue with remote learning.
The Camp Verde Unified School District came back to campus on Jan. 4 while Sedona-Oak Creek School District returned on Jan. 11.
All five school districts in the Verde Valley, and all headquartered in Yavapai County, use the exact same state data to determine community spread.
Wescott clarified that families that wish to continue educating their student remotely are free to do so.
