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CITY NEWS
SCOTTSDALE PROGRESS | WWW.SCOTTSDALE.ORG | NOVEMBER 1, 2020
SUSD from page 1
exceeded 100 new cases per 100,000 residents for two straight weeks. But, under the new guidelines it’s unlikely any school will be recommended to close in the near future because the percent of hospital visits with COVID-like symptoms throughout the community is at 3 percent, well below the 10 percent threshold that moves a ZIP code into red. The new guidelines are unlikely to trigger another Governing Board vote even though they differ from those approved in September. “The Governing Board adopted whatever the ADHS metrics are, so that adoption would carry forward with any modifications made by ADHS – avoiding any need to continuously vote to adopt the latest incarnation of ADHS standard,” SUSD spokeswoman Amy Bolton said. In his Oct. 27 letter, Menzel also wrote that the schools will not be closed automatically if district ZIP codes reach “red” in all three categories. Those decisions would then be made on a “school by school basis” in coordination with county Department of Public Health. “While the level of community spread is
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Rising COVID-19 case numbers threatened to close Chaparral High School and nine other Scottsdale schools until the Arizona Department of Health Services modified its metrics last week. (Pablo Robles/ Progress Staff Photographer)
an important indicator, it is not the only variable considered before recommending a return to virtual instruction with onsite support,” Menzel wrote, adding: “The other factors include the number of cases in the school, evidence of transmission within the school, availability of the teaching workforce, and compliance with public health recommended mitigation strategies.” Will Humble, executive director of Arizona Public Health Association and former state health director, was critical of the guideline change, arguing it puts too much weight on the “COVID-like symptoms” metric. “I do still think they’re good metrics, especially the percent positivity and the number of cases per 100,000. Those are solid metrics,” Humble said. “I’ve always been less enthusiastic about that third metric, which is COVID-like illness reported by hospitals because it’s what we call it in the business ‘syndromic surveillance.’” Humble said that metric is subjective
and voluntarily reported, making a poor indicator for public health decisions. “I didn’t have a problem with the way the guidance was written before, because you could have two out of the three indicators – meaning the two good indicators regardless of what happened with the bad indicator – and once you got into the red zone, then you need to start thinking about going back to a virtual instruction,” Humble said. Humble continued, “But now when you say…you should include the third metric, which is a flimsy metric, then you’re putting (Governing Boards) in the position of not understanding that two of the three metrics are good and one is bad, and they may start to change their decisions based on a metric that is poor.” Dr. Cara Christ, director of the Arizona Department of Health Services, wrote that school districts should work with local health officials if ZIP codes within their
see SUSD page 16