Classes in two Sacramento County schools in quarantine days after campuses reopened

Four classes at two Folsom elementary schools were told to quarantine just days after campuses reopened for in-person learning.

In-person instruction in Folsom Cordova Unified resumed just last Thursday, bringing nearly 5,000 students back to 20 campuses.

On Monday, the district sent a letter to families stating that a student or staff member tested positive for COVID-19. The news was first reported Monday by ABC 10.

The last date of known exposure to the classroom cohorts at Folsom Hills Elementary and Carl Sundahl Elementary was Thursday. Two classes at each of those schools are now in quarantine and returned to distance learning on Tuesday.

The classroom cohorts will be closed through at least Dec. 1 “to allow students and staff to be tested and to avoid further spread of the virus.”

The letter informs parents and staff they may be contacted by the Sacramento County Public Health Department, and asks children and staff to immediately quarantine, even if they are asymptomatic.

District officials declined to confirm the cases to The Sacramento Bee, but stated, “if any individual, who has had a presence on a school or District site, tests positive for COVID-19, our process is to notify all who were in close contact with that individual, and to follow the recommendations provided by public health officials for quarantining with the steps outlined in this guideline here.”

Angelica Miklos, president of the Folsom Cordova Education Association union, said she knew that cases would eventually be reported at school sites, but that she did not expect them to happen one or two days after reopening.

“It validates our point that it was rushed and it wasn’t thought through,” she said “The board rushed us into the situation we are in today.”

The district developed a dashboard to inform parents of COVID-19 cases.

Only cases verified with a lab-confirmed positive test will be included, according an updated message from the district on Tuesday.

Five staff members and six students in total tested positive for the virus in November, according to the dashboard.

“Verified positive cases reported will include only staff and students who have had a presence on an FCUSD school or work site,” according to the dashboard. “Positive cases for students and staff who are 100% virtual will not be included in the dashboard.”

Miklos said she believes keeping campuses open is not the solution.

“If anything, it just grounds those feelings even more,” Miklos said. “Two weeks before Thanksgiving, we know people will be with families, I don’t know what to expect when we come back. It’s all concerning.”

Folsom Cordova Unified is the first large district in Sacramento to reopen its doors. Students from transitional kindergarten through fifth grade are on campus for roughly 2-and-a-half hours of instruction. Middle school and high school students are scheduled to return to in-person instruction in January.

The district spent more than $7.6 million on PPE, air filters, hand washing stations and more.

Just a week before opening, teachers and parents rallied in front of the district’s administrative office calling for more transparency in its reopening plan, reflecting that some teachers and parents were not confident in the district’s plan to bring students and staff back to campus.

It’s unclear how school districts will move forward with reopenings as Sacramento County, and neighboring counties, entered the state of California’s purple tier with coronavirus infection rates surging across the state.

The county allowed Folsom Cordova to reopen its elementary schools as the county reentered the purple tier because the reopening process had already begun.

This story was originally published November 17, 2020 at 11:32 AM.