By NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Buhler USD 313 Superintendent Cindy Couchman notes that though there has been a lot of progress in the COVID-19 numbers of late, more needs to go into making decisions about when to change educational models.
"There's lots of things I have to weigh," Couchman said. "It's just not the gating criteria. It's not the only thing. It's how many students would be quarantined? How many staff would be quarantined? The health of our staff, how many at-risk staff I have. Have they all had their second dose of vaccinations?"
Some school districts in the state are choosing to create their own policy rather than follow the gating criteria for the county they are in.
"If we simply went by our gating criteria, it would have to drop down to under 10% PTR, and I think 175 positive cases," Couchman said.
Technically, it would be under 15.7% PTR and under 175 cases, but Buhler has been in the red since October. The PTR as of last week was 17.3%, with 365 cases.
"If I remove activities from quarantines in our buildings, we're in hybrid 6-12, we only quarantine on the average, I think 2.6 students per positive case," Couchman said. "If we go back to full in person, every case could possibly generate, depending on how crowded the classroom is that they were in and how many people they sat with at lunch and if they ride a bus, 30-60 kids per positive case and that takes kids out of school."
Obviously, the future remains to be seen, but Couchman is encouraged that with more vaccine coming out every day, eventually the numbers will resolve themselves.
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