OKCPS Says COVID Mitigation Strategies Help To Buffer Omicron Surge

Districts are heading back to in-person learning this week after briefly closing their doors after the holiday COVID surge.  

Wednesday, January 19th 2022, 6:51 pm



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Districts are heading back to in-person learning this week after briefly closing their doors after the holiday COVID surge.  

OKCPS administrators said that this COVID surge is different than others.  

Millions of federal dollars have been spent on a wide variety of mitigation measures at OKCPS.   

“We can call on district officials to all galvanize our forces and concentrate on one site maybe two sites, but when you have a 30 to 40 percent absentee rate across numerous schools and several schools, you just eventually run out of manpower said,” deputy superintendent at OKCPS Jason Brown. 

But, the district returned to in-person learning after just four days of remote learning.  

“By quarantining, and following those health and safety protocols, by all of our staff and student being required to wear masks, we feel like we really tried to put up as big of a wall against omicron as possible, and I think that fleshes out in the numbers,” Brown says.  

Brown says widespread testing availability at district sites helped shorten the time that some exposed staff and students had to stay out of the classroom.  

“We’ve spent millions of dollars to put ionization in place in our sites to help filter the air, with the misting and the material that we bought and the equipment that we bought with ESSER funds, we started misting buildings and fumigating buildings.”  

He says these investments made it possible to return to in-person learning so soon, even as Omicron continues to surge statewide. 

But, this doesn’t mean disruptions are over. Many districts included cautionary warnings in their return to in person announcements that COVID exposures would continue to be an issue.  

Testing is available - with some reported disruptions – at many districts due to state supplies or clinic partnerships. 

OKCPS says they just ordered 8,000 more tests and do not anticipate running out.  

In a statement, OSDH said testing supplies at districts that receive tests from the state are currently holding up to the Omicron demand.  

“As of today, our testing supplies in Oklahoma remain adequate to meet the demand. However, with continued utilization of testing at an all-time high due to the current surge, we must be realistic and know that supply could be an issue depending on how long this surge lasts. Oklahoma is not alone, as we are seeing an increased demand for testing throughout the country. We are working to evaluate next month’s allotments, hoping that we can get more testing kits into schools. We did learn Noble Public Schools was low on their testing supplies. As soon as that was brought to our attention, we shipped them more tests today. The agency is diligently placing orders, working to secure more tests for the state of Oklahoma. We encourage schools apart of the program to go ahead place orders for what they need with the OSDH.” 


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