With the rise of the highly contagious Omicron variant, Aragon has seen a spike in COVID-19 related absences. While absence numbers have been returning to normal in February, many students are recovering from COVID-19 or from the academic impact of a longer absence. Currently, students who test positive for COVID-19 must quarantine for a minimum of five days and receive a negative test, or quarantine for at least ten days if they don’t test, before returning to school.
According to the San Mateo Union High School District’s COVID-19 dashboard, the total number of positive COVID-19 cases since returning from winter break has been 170 at Aragon, a sharp increase from only seven positive cases in the fall semester. Districtwide, there have been 1017 cases so far this semester. The District suggests that students test weekly, and according to the District, more than 25,000 free COVID-19 tests have been administered districtwide as of Feb. 3. Schools are also offering free N95 masks for their students and staff in an effort to reduce infection rates and are heavily encouraging COVID-19 vaccinations for everyone. The vaccine will likely become mandatory for students to return next fall.
“There has been at least one event Aragon students have participated in that required proof of vaccination, and that has been pretty easy since the vast majority of our students are vaccinated,” said Principal Valerie Arbizu.
“We’re not allowed to make [the decision to shut down]”
The constantly changing nature of the virus has caused COVID-19 policies to fluctuate. As the District makes adjustments to handle the new developments, many have wondered if Aragon will return to online learning.
“We’re not allowed to make [the decision to shut down],” Arbizu said. “The county office would decide [to shut down] based on what our positive cases look like. Our District Health Office is very much in contact with the County Office of Health and they would make that call. [It’s] the same for every other public school in the state of California.”
With so many students absent due to the spike in Omicron infections, teachers are trying to aid their at-home students by tweaking due dates and putting more work online.
“I think [the pandemic] has changed the way I teach, in the sense that I’m much more mindful of how the students are experiencing things on their end,” said health teacher Justin Cottrell. “We’ve had to make these shifts and I think the situation with the pandemic has caused a lot of teachers to rethink what they’re assigning students.”
As the amount of students trying to test has overwhelmed the staff, testing has shifted from walk-ins to appointments. The change to appointment-only testing has helped to organize students’ testing times.
Long COVID-19-related absences from school are a concern for some students while others find that teachers are making the transition to at-home learning easier.
Sophomore Kelsey Mallard is one student who had to quarantine as a result of COVID-19.
“Teachers [were] really helpful,” Mallard said. “They emailed me and if I had any questions they would respond to me. They moved all their work to online instead of on paper.”
“My teachers made it easy because a lot of students are missing in my classes.”
Fellow sophomore Reed Willems had to quarantine as a result of exposure to COVID-19, despite his negative tests. He agreed that Aragon has made it easier to complete work online this semester.
“For me as a student, I wasn’t too worried about schoolwork,” Willems said. “My teachers made it easy because a lot of students are missing in my classes. Everything is on Canvas for me to make up. I also think teachers are giving simpler directions for assignments so that if you’re not there it’s easier to make up.”
Another change that Omicron has brought is a new wave of cancellations among school events, such as Winter Formal, certain athletic events and sports practices due to rising infection rates.
“Our county guidelines keep changing,” Arbizu said. “For example, [on Jan. 13], the state came out with another set of guidelines, and the county is still taking a look at what that looks like, and how that ripples to the schools. At the time, when we first came back, the policy was that if we had three or more positive cases on a particular team … we would reschedule the games … for the next five days.”
Ultimately, the pandemic has resulted in many policy and procedural shifts at Aragon.
