GOSHEN COUNTY – Goshen County School District No. 1 introduced a COVID-19 Communication Dashboard on their website, listing the number of active and recovered cases in each building, along with an operational zone classified by either green, yellow and red.
As of Sept. 23, Torrington High School has two recovered cases and LaGrange/Southeast Schools have one active case, putting GCSD at three cumulative cases. There were no reported cases as of Wednesday in the Lingle-Fort Laramie Schools.
The district does not list on the dashboard whether the cases are students or staff. Reports from Southeast Schools and LaGrange Elementary are combined due to the small number of personnel there, to maintain privacy, according to Superintendent Ryan Kramer.
GCSD has so far avoided a major coronavirus outbreak thanks to social distancing measures, face mask requirements and/or plastic dividers between students. Goshen County as a whole has 20 active cases, three identified as females in their “late teens” as of Sept. 22, according to the Wyoming Department of Health.
As of 3 p.m. Tuesday, the total number of coronavirus cases state-wide increased by 42, to 4,231. Active case reports increased by 14, to 737. Goshen County reported 59 people have recovered from COVID-19.
Kramer said the local district has plans in place should they see an uptick in cases.
“It’s going to be based on attendance percentages, and then it’ll trigger us to have conversations between county health and the (school) board president and board vice president after we reach a certain threshold,” Kramer said. “Another trigger that will necessitate a conversation would be a number of positive cases at a certain building.”
The district’s Smart Start School Operations plan outlines three tiers of operation, with all GCSD buildings currently operating at tier 1B, meaning all students attend school in-person and abide by county and state health orders, which mandates students, teachers and staff wear masks or maintain six feet of distance from one another.
Tier two involves a hybrid model in which students will split their time between in-person and online learning, limiting the number of kids on campus at one time. Tier three removes all students from the classroom and into remote or online learning.
Kramer said individual buildings would change tiers as needed rather than the whole district unless there is a “significant spike” within the county.
It’s difficult to provide strict thresholds indicating a number of cases that would require schools to change tiers, he said. Data like attendance and case counts will be monitored and used to determine when it’s time to discuss changing tiers.
“It’s more of a guidance, because the accuracy of attendance data is really good in relation to the percentage, but in relation to the reasons and dissecting those is not as accurate,” Kramer said. “That’s why we were hesitant to set a specific number, ‘when we reach this, this is what’ll happen,’ because there are so many variables.”
As indicated on the GCSD COVID-19 dashboard, they will classify where they’re at with cases in terms of operational zones, green, yellow and red. With just three cases, Goshen County schools are in the green as of Sept. 23.
“When we reach red, we’ll be having further conversation, a more in-depth investigation, and once that’s accomplished, we’ll determine if increasing tiers is necessary,” Kramer said.
Community members can view the COVID-19 communication dashboard at Goshen1.org under “COVID-19 info.”
