6 more Tri-Cities school employees sick with COVID. 1 district delays returning students

Two school employees in Burbank and four in Kennewick tested positive for COVID-19 since Friday.

The positive test results were announced just as both districts were bringing additional students back into schools and classrooms this week.

About 250 more students started classes at Kennewick schools this week, including preschoolers. Next week, all kindergarten through fifth-graders are expected to return on staggered schedules.

Since Friday, four more Kennewick staff members have contracted COVID-19. That included two employees at Kennewick High and one each at Westgate Elementary and Park Middle School.

That brings the total to 14 employees and one student who have gotten sick with the virus since late August. More than a third of those cases have been reported since the beginning of October.

Kennewick is the only district to publicly list how many staff members have gotten ill and where they work.

Richland reported that six staff members have gotten sick since the beginning of the school year. None of them were working inside of the buildings or had contact with any other staff or students, said Ty Beaver, the district’s communication director.

The district is putting together a dashboard to list the number of ill staff members and where they were working, he said.

Pasco had 17 staff members get COVID since the beginning of the school year. The district has cleaned the employees’ work areas and any other parts of the schools that they’ve visited, said Shane Edinger, the director of public affairs.

The Kennewick School District is urging people to get tested if they suspect they may have COVID, so that health officials can track the illness easier.

Burbank schools

The 700-student Columbia School District in Burbank sent a letter to parents Monday announcing that it planned to push back the start of hybrid learning for second graders after two employees tested positive.

The district worked with Walla Walla County Department of Community Health and discovered the two cases are linked.

“After meeting with local health officials, we are still being advised to continue with our return to school plans,” Superintendent Todd Hilberg said in the letter. “We are happy to note again that no student risks have been identified.”

The school district opened last week for in-person teaching of first-, third-, sixth-, ninth- and 10th-graders.

They started with a hybrid learning schedule that brings half of the students back in the morning and the other half in the afternoon Tuesday through Friday. When they aren’t in school they study online.

The district has been doing temperature checks for students, and making sure they didn’t have any symptoms before they went into classrooms. They are continuing with those precautions as they bring back fourth- and fifth-graders this week.

But the loss of two staff members meant they needed to delay the return of second-grade students until Oct. 19.

Staff shortage

The constraints around COVID-19 have taxed substitute teacher pools in school districts that have reopened across the country.

“We understand the late notice of this decision will be difficult for those families affected, but know that we would not have done this unless absolutely necessary,” Hilberg said. “We take the safety of our students and staff seriously and must ensure the safety of everyone involved.”

He also noted that the risk of transmission continues to rise as they bring more students and teachers back into schools, and encouraged people to do their part in making it safer for everyone by wearing masks, maintaining a 6-foot distance and frequent hand washing.

Parents in the small community just east of Pasco thanked the district on Facebook for letting them know, but did not comment further.

Walla Walla County as a whole has been less affected by COVID than either Benton or Franklin counties.

Since the beginning of the outbreak, there have been 966 total cases. Of those, 75 were in the Burbank and Wallula areas. That compares to 4,500 total cases in neighboring Franklin County, which is much more populated.

This story was originally published October 13, 2020 at 12:48 PM.