As some teachers petition for delay to in-person learning, vaccinations for Henrico educators could begin next week

On the same day a group of Henrico County Public Schools teachers and their supporters presented a petition urging Henrico Schools officials to delay a return to in-person learning for the third time, Superintendent Amy Cashwell indicated that school system employees could be in line for COVID-19 vaccinations as soon as next week, the Citizen has learned.

The HCPS Back to School Safely group, which has more than 2,600 members on Facebook, launched the petition Friday night and sent it Monday morning to Cashwell, Henrico School Board members and other school system officials, urging a delay in light of COVID numbers that are continuing to rise in the county. It had 913 signatures this morning and is still open for the collection of more, according to Highland Springs High School teacher Ryan Burgess, an administrator of the group.

The petition seeks a virtual town hall meeting between Henrico Superintendent Amy Cashwell and staff members, so that the latter group can convey its “numerous concerns,” according to the group, which also is asking HCPS officials to lobby for staff vaccinations as quickly as possible and to establish concrete metrics for opening and closing schools, based upon numerical percentages.

Monday afternoon, Cashwell emailed HCPS employees to indicate that the school system is working in partnership with the Henrico Health Department to make the vaccine available to all full-time, part-time and temporary employees of the school system perhaps as early as next week. In order to prepare for that possibility, Cashwell wrote, the school system would survey all employees later Monday about the vaccine (and presumably whether they would want to receive it or not).

School officials also plan to hold a virtual information session about the plans for vaccine roll-out, she wrote.

On Jan. 5, Cashwell announced that the return to in-person learning for elementary school students who chose it would be delayed by two weeks – to Jan. 25 – in the face of dramatic COVID increases locally. Secondary school students who chose to come back in person already were scheduled to return the following week, and that schedule remains unchanged.

Last week, Virginia Department of Health officials indicated that the second phase of vaccinations – which prioritizes pre-K through 12th grade educators third among a list of other employees – would begin statewide by the end of the month. In 11 health districts (but not Henrico’s), that process is beginning Jan. 11. A specific timeline for Henrico to enter the second phase is not yet known, but judging from Cashwell’s email Monday could be approaching within days.

Members of the Back to School Safely group have expressed frustration about the fact that while rising COVID numbers in mid-November prompted Cashwell to delay from Nov. 30 to Jan. 11 a planned return for elementary students, the explosion of those same numbers in the weeks since prompted only a two-week delay.

At the time Cashwell made her decision Nov. 16, the number of new cases in Henrico per 100,000 people during the previous 14 days was 216.2 (in the "highest risk" category, according to the Virginia Department of Health). It had more than tripled by Jan. 5 and has continued to rise since then – to 827 Jan. 11.

The percentage of positive PCR tests during the most recent 14-day period as of Nov. 16 was 5% (in the “higher risk” category); it’s now 13.9%.

Those two data points are two of the three core metrics that the VDH recommends local school systems use to evaluate whether, or when, to return students to class in person. The third core metric is the school system’s mitigation strategies, such as use of personal protective equipment, social distancing and disinfecting.

Health committee recommended longer delay
Cashwell told the Citizen and HCPS stakeholders last week that her recent decision followed input from the school system’s health committee, which she said in recent weeks had begun placing more emphasis on that third core metric.

The health committee’s Jan. 4 meeting was private, but minutes from the meeting show that its recommendation was for a longer delay than Cashwell selected. Members suggested waiting until the start of the third marking period (in February) to bring pre-k through second-graders back. The minutes did not indicate whether the committee made a suggestion about the timing for third-, fourth- and fifth-graders.

During that meeting, Assistant Henrico Health Director Melissa Viray indicated that the higher COVID numbers likely were the result of holiday gatherings and that it could take several weeks for those numbers to decline. She also suggested that the increase in Henrico’s positivity percentage was due in part to mass testing at Henrico’s many long-term care facilities in the county, according to the meeting minutes.

The VDH does not release testing data by location, so it’s impossible to know how many tests were conducted at long-term care facilities in Henrico during the time Viray cited.

In announcing the delay until Jan. 25, Cashwell cited to the Citizen new data related to mental health issues that some students have experienced as one reason she wanted to allow students back in school sooner rather than later. The Citizen has inquired about the specific data she referenced, but it’s been a generally accepted fact that isolation and other challenges related to virtual learning have led to depression and other negative outcomes for some students, even as others have thrived.

Members of the Back to School Safely group have pushed back on statements made by county officials – including Viray and Henrico Health Director Danny Avula at the last health committee meeting – that suggest the rate of COVID transmission in school settings is low.

Neighboring Hanover County has been offering in-person learning for students since the start of the school year, and about 11,000 of its 18,000 students opted for it. Hanover has 25 schools and so far has reported 293 cases in them, which have resulted in nearly 1,800 people being quarantined, according to data released by the school system.

Dinwiddie County, which has about 4,400 students at eight schools, began bringing students back in September on a grade-by-grade basis, but now may be rethinking its decision to remain in-person, according to Superintendent Kari Weston. She posted on Facebook Jan. 8 that the county’s school board may reverse course at its Jan. 12 meeting.

“Currently, there is a widespread and increasing community spread, and we are now seeing an overwhelming number of students and staff members out for COVID-related illnesses and exposures,” she wrote, explaining that the absences and other requests for staff leave have strained and overwhelmed the system’s employees.

In Henrico, officials have maintained confidence about their staffing plans, even as new positions created as part of their mitigation efforts remain unfilled. The health committee reported Jan. 4, for example, that 31 clinic aide positions remained unfilled at the county’s elementary schools, as did three such positions at middle schools and one at a high school.