Coronavirus testing begins in Montclair public schools on October 11

By TALIA WIENER
[email protected]

Voluntary pooled coronavirus testing will begin at Montclair public schools on October 11, with testing being done outside in tents.

At an Education Council meeting on October 6, Superintendent of Schools Jonathan Ponds said families in 58% of the student body have indicated their willingness to participate in testing in what district officials described such as “pre-consent” forms. “It shows the determination and strength of our district,” he said.

Some board members and parents had argued for an opt-out system – where students would be tested by default, unless their families explicitly choose to opt out of their participation. But the neighborhood is still planning for an opt-in system, which Ponds says better respects the right of families to be informed about medical procedures.

Prior consent forms for the tests were sent to families earlier in the school year to assess interest in participating in the tests, Felice Harrison-Crawford, deputy superintendent of operations and district school support services, said at the meeting. Families will still need to register officially via electronic consent forms sent through the district’s digital portal, Genesis, in the coming days, Ponds said at the meeting. The consent forms will look like the ones used to opt for pooled testing last school year, he said.

Ponds had said in a September 24 community bulletin that tests would take place every week. He had previously said the district would prioritize weekly tests for primary school students as well as sixth and seventh graders (some of whom are too young to be vaccinated), and other students would follow after that. The Montclair Local has sent a message to their office requesting clarification on the schedule and is awaiting a response.

In group tests, participating students and staff in a given class will administer a nasal swab on their own, and all swabs will be placed in a combined container. The technique is not used as an individual diagnosis, but to spot the coronavirus in a population. If a positive test is found in a pool, students in the pool will receive rapid antigen testing, a representative from synthetic biology company Ginko Bioworks, which will conduct the testing, said at a previous meeting.

The Montclair school board approved a contract for Ginko’s concentric testing program at the October 6 meeting. Ginkgo also carried out the cluster coronavirus testing in the district during the 2021-2022 school year.

Some board members expressed concerns about the testing schedule. With board approval Wednesday night, with consent forms due to be sent out just before a three-day weekend, and testing due to begin on Tuesday, families won’t have much time to make the decision, a said member Crystal Hopkins. Monday is a professional development day in the neighborhood.

“We have a large number of families who have not returned to the buildings and this will be the first time they will look at this information,” Hopkins said. “I have the impression that we are going to put ourselves in a situation where [with the] deadlines, that will not work.

Vice-chairman of the board, Priscilla Church, said the timeline did not appear “realistic”.

“I’m confident that you’re really working on it,” Church told Ponds at the meeting. “I just want to be careful because I want it to be successful. It is important that he succeeds from day one and that we do not have any missteps.

Since the consent process is already familiar to families, the process should move quickly, Crawford said.

“I think we’re good with our schedule,” Harrison-Crawford said. “I know it’s a tight schedule, but I’m really confident that we can move forward.”

Families will be notified at least 48 hours before testing takes place, Ponds said.

The Gingko Bioworks Contract totals $ 287,302. Of that amount, $ 10,980 pays for 726 rapid antigen test kits. The contract has a duration of 11 weeks with a possible extension. The district will reassess testing needs and state mandates once the 11 weeks have passed, Ponds said.

The costs of the tests will be covered by existing funding from the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund, Ponds said at the meeting. The district will be reimbursed by the state for at least part of the costs of the tests, but no deadline for this reimbursement has been set, he said.

Elementary students will be grouped by class, and middle and high school students will be grouped by main class, Harrison-Crawford said at the meeting. A team of one to two members of Gingko staff will assist the school nurses in carrying out the tests. They will wear appropriate personal protective equipment, she said.

“We trust Ginko in their process and procedures for helping, making sure we do it in a protected manner,” Ponds said at the meeting. “Like when you walk into a doctor’s office, it will be the same to make sure our students are taken care of. “

Each school in the district has the tents needed for testing outdoors, business administrator Nicholas Cipriano told the meeting. Most schools have already identified places for the tents to be set up, Harrison-Crawford said.

“We are just a kind of wBy working throughout the process to make sure that in inclement weather there is a backup plan, ”said Harrison-Crawford.

Parents were waiting to opt for the test, unsure whether it will take place outside, parent Lani Sommer-Padilla said at the meeting.

“I didn’t sign up to have my kids tested, but I will do so now because the tests will take place outside,” Sommer-Padilla said. “I expect a lot of parents to start signing up for their child to be tested in schools, which will take place outside.”

Dissatisfied with district test plans, Sommer-Padilla and other parents launched weekly outdoor test sites next to the neighborhood primary schools.

The district informed families of cases detected in schools. In the September 24 bulletin, Ponds said the district had seen “well under 10” cases at this point. When asked how many cases there were altogether, District Information Secretary Jennifer Fusco told the Montclair Local on September 13 that she could not comment on the condition of health of staff or students due to confidentiality. She and Ponds did not respond to a follow-up email requesting the same information shared with families via the notices.