With the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States calming down, MHS has partially reopened, allowing freshmen and students who opted into in-person learning to be on campus. After a month and a half of in-person learning, MHS’s IPL procedures may need to be reevaluated for the safety of students.
Students participating in IPL are divided into two groups, Group A and Group B. Group A goes to campus on Mondays and Tuesdays, while Group B attends on Thursdays and Fridays. Students are placed six feet apart in classrooms where teachers teach both the online class and in-person class the same material at the same time.
For comparison, other public schools nearby, like Los Altos High School and Mountain View High School, also have hybrid schedules, although their student bodies are made up of only those who opted in to in-person learning, rather than a specific grade like the freshmen. Students in the MVLA school district will have the chance to switch back to virtual learning after opting into in-person learning, while MHS students do not. In addition, all MVLA teachers are required to return to campus, regardless of their vaccination status. Although there are comprehensive tests and safety protocols in place, endangering students and teachers without having teachers be fully vaccinated may not be the best procedure.
In addition, MHS has students self-test themselves for COVID-19 with nasal swabs. Specifically, teachers distribute nasal swab testing kits to students and observe them for accuracy, despite the students not having much instruction on how to properly administer the test. These tests are administered weekly and are collected by employees to check for positive cases. By having this system, the MHS school district may be inaccurately reporting the correct number of COVID cases at the school because these self-administered tests can be quite prone to error without proper guidance on the procedure.
In comparison, the San Jose Unified School District is having their students be tested for COVID-19 by medical professionals at free testing sites provided by the County of Santa Clara. Although Milpitas testing may be more frequent, a reliable system with testing sites held by professionals would work better, since it would give more accurate test results. It is good to see that Milpitas is spending its budget on helpful supplies for in person learning, but it should still have medical professionals conduct the COVID-19 tests.
Relative to other counties, Milpitas has kept its reported case count average ever since reopening. As of May 1, there have only been two reported cases of COVID-19. In comparison, the MVLA school district has had three cases since the start of hybrid learning, and FUHSD has had ten cases. Overall, Milpitas has been keeping up to standards with in-person learning, but there is still much that can be improved in terms of testing.
