Superintendent Lee Lesisko asked John Hauth and Dr. Rajika Reed to give the board a medical perspective about returning to school.

Hauth is the senior director of sports medicine relations at St. Luke’s, and Reed is a medical doctor and senior network director of epidemiology and strategy at St. Luke’s.

Reed said the numbers of positive cases are declining, as are the number of hospitalizations and deaths. Treatment for COVID-19 is getting better and hospital stays are shorter.

“Our trends are actually looking very good,” she said.

As of Friday, the number of people testing positive between Jan. 22 to 28 was 247 people per 100,000 and the percent positivity was 12.8, down from 14.3 the previous week.

Given the positivity rate in Monroe County and the number of cases per 100,000, the community transmission is still substantial and the state recommendation is full remote learning, Reed said. The hybrid or blended learning should take place if the rate is less than 10%.

Lesisko asked her when she thinks the school district can go back to full in-class sessions and if the students can safely be seated closer than 6 feet apart.

“The recommendation is really 6 feet,” she said.

As far as when they could go back, Reed said she doesn’t know, but the numbers are not better than they were in the fall. She thinks it is important for schools to continue to follow all of the prevention strategies.

School board member Todd Kresge asked if the data about the positive rates, etc. took into account the new variants of the virus now in the United States.

Reed said it does not, but she has heard that although the new variants are more contagious, they are not more fatal and are still covered by the vaccine.

Kresge said he has concerns.

“The CDC still recommends 6 foot spacing,” he said. “If we go to full, then it’s going to be 3 to 6, so we’re basically going against CDC recommendations, and we’re still in a substantial category. It just doesn’t make sense to try and rush bringing K to six back.”

He asked how the district would handle the cafeteria situation. William Gasper, director of operations, said students would eat in the cafeteria 6 feet apart and the overflow would eat in their classrooms.

Currently, the classrooms can handle on average 12 students spaced 6 feet apart, Gasper said.

School board member Laura Jecker asked Gasper how many classrooms are in the school district that can accommodate 18 to 27 students 6 feet apart.

Rae Lin Howard, assistant to the superintendent, said it varies in every building and there are no consistent sizes. Gasper added that the fourth grade has a classroom that can hold 19 students.

“So if you have 22 students in a classroom, there’s no way they can be 6 feet apart,” Jecker said.

“Exactly,” Howard said. “We’re not saying to bring them back. We were just gathering information. I think it’s always good to take the temperature of our community.”

Parents commenting on Facebook during the meeting said that young children don’t stay 6 feet apart anyway. Another said the district should open more classrooms. Another parent suggested adding modular classrooms.