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Loveland School Board: A homework Assignment

Must be completed by Tuesday

David Miller

Aug 8, 2021

COMMENTARY

David Miller is the Publisher and Editor of Loveland Magazine

By David Miller

Dear Loveland School Board.

Given that COVID infections caused by the now predominant delta variant are likely to go undetected and children attending school with what appears to be a mild cold, what measures, if any, do you propose to use to prevent the spread of COVID-19 throughout the Tiger school community?

The predominant delta variant is much more contagious than the version of COVID-19 Loveland school children faced last year.

Here is a list of things to consider and do before your meeting on Tuesday, August 10 – eight days before classes begin for the school year. I have provided the resource materials below that you will need to complete your assignment.

You know this but does it bear repeating? Loveland students eleven years old and younger cannot currently receive any benefit a vaccination will provide.

Only approximately 18% of our students who are eligible for a vaccine are fully vaccinated.

The tracking system of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has now moved Clermont and Warren Counties to the highest level of warning for the transmission of COVID 19. Hamilton County remains in the “Substantial” range.

There will be no remote learning opportunities (Remote Academy) for Loveland teachers or students as all school buildings will return to full capacity in-person classes in August. Find out how many more students will be attending each building and riding buses as classes begin.

Find out how many students, staff, and teachers became infected and how many were quarantined last school year when there were far fewer persons in the buildings and on buses than there will be this year.

Review the comprehensive study ($66K “Pandemic Preparedness and Planning” services) that you purchased before school began last year. Review which of the recommended COVID protocols were implemented and whether or not you are going to abandon them as school starts on August 18.

Your current policy states that you will follow any “mandates” of a list of what you call your “Directing Entities”. Since none of these “Directing Entities” have mandated protocols and nothing in current Ohio law prevents you from adopting any recommendation you choose – review their recommendations and choose one.

Below is a list of what your “Directing Entities” are currently recommending for K-12 schools.

Also, below for your review, are the recommendations contained in the $66,000 report you purchased.

With all due respect, none of you or your staff are smarter or have any greater insight as to what is the best way to start this school year than the medical and scientific community of your Directing Entities.

And, with all due respect to the parents of the District, “parental choice” of your child wearing a mask or not – is not your decision to make. You can be the loudest voice in the classroom of social media, but just as the elected Board of this District relies on known experts to decide which textbooks teachers use or what is served in the cafeteria – providing a healthy classroom is in their job description.

Board, please follow the latest advice from the health experts, your “Directing Entities” and from your own “consultant experts” that you hired in 2020.

Let’s get back to school. Let’s do so in a way that fully protects our children, teachers, and our friends that work as District staff. Don’t allow any of them to be put in the potentially lethal classroom petri dish experiment of this new delta variant.