The Mahomet-Seymour School District will begin rapid antigen testing
to help identify COVID-19 among Mahomet-Seymour staff and enrolled
students beginning Jan. 11.
With a valid consent form, eligible individuals will be able to be
tested at a drive-through facility in the bus lane at Mahomet-Seymour
Jr. High School on Mondays, an asynchronous learning day for the
district, from 8 a.m to noon and 1 p.m. to 6 p.m.
Students and staff who become symptomatic while at school or make an
appointment, will be able to be tested at the district’s four buildings
Tuesday through Friday.
Superintendent Lindsey Hall said the district is excited to be able to
offer the test. As of Wednesday, the district has tested 163 staff
members and 34 students.
District Nurse Nita Bachman added that she was happy with the test run
on Monday, adding that a few “minor tweaks organizationally” would
need to be made, but she feels confident moving forward in January.
Bachman believes the eight-step process is “fairly efficient.” She has a
staff of 20, which she thinks will be enough, but said she might need
additional help for traffic control.
The district received 57,000 of Abbott’s BinaxNOW COVID-19 Ag Card
tests through the Champaign-Urbana Public Health Department. All
schools within Champaign County were made aware of the tests,
according to Public Health Director Julie Pryde.
Abbott’s COVID-19 Ag Card tests have also been approved for at-home
use by the US Food and Drug Administration.
In general, antigen tests are not as sensitive as molecular PCR tests,
according to the FDA. This means that there is a higher chance of
false negatives than with many molecular tests.
The district looks at the antigen test as a screening tool. Initially,
students will be advised to also get a PCR test at another testing
facility.
Eventually, the district hopes to also be able to administer PCR tests
on-site to send to Carle, like the Champaign School District has done.
Bachman said that test, though, comes with a cost and a responsibility
of checking with insurance companies, so she wants to get the antigen
testing going first before moving forward.
“This, along with the mitigation efforts we have right now, masks and
the cleaning that the custodial crews are doing, and the extraordinary
efforts that the faculty and the administrators have put forth, I
think it’s just one more tool in our toolbox that will keep us moving
forward,” Bachman said.
The district will not “force” testing on anyone, Bachman added. She
said students are welcome to go to another testing facility, and even
after the antigen test, would be required to in some cases.
Because of the work it takes to get the program going and maintained,
Mahomet-Seymour is the only one who took the steps to pilot the
program. Other schools in the county may follow after seeing how it
works in the Mahomet-Seymour District.
The district has 215 consent forms from students within the district
already. The district employs 186 teachers and serves 3,220 students,
according to the Illinois Report Card.
Families needing to get their student tested on Monday will enter the
junior high bus lane off Main Street going towards State Street. Staff
can also make appointments to be tested up to once a week.
Parents will also be given the opportunity to have their student
tested if they become symptomatic while at school.
Bachman reiterated that the availability of the antigen test does not
mean families should send their child to school with symptoms to get
tested. Parents should still follow the district policy of keeping
children at home if they have any symptoms of COVID-19 or have been
exposed.
“It does not change anything we’re doing in-house,” she said.
“Currently, it just adds an extra level to perhaps keep somebody from
coming in on Tuesday that we might not catch until Wednesday.”
The district also plans to have the parents involved in the testing
process as they will be the ones to administer the swab, Bachman said.
The district will be responsible for packaging the test appropriately.
“We’re not going to traumatize children doing it without a parent
being there,” she said.
“Even at the Junior High High School, we’re going to make sure that
the parents are involved in the process. We’re not going to do any of
that without parental consent. That’s our main thing, making
sure that we have parents on board with every step of the way.”
With enough tests to administer the test to each individual about 14
times, there is no limit on the number of people who can come through
the testing site on a Monday.
The Mahomet-Seymour team is operating on a Clinical Laboratory
Improvement Amendment (CLIA) Certificate of Waiver as an emergency
testing cipher for the POC (point-of-care) antigen testing.
“Schools were among the people that they were looking to get the setup
for,” Bachman said.
“That’s one of the emergency measures that has come through to let
schools, to let nursing homes, to let other entities, long term care
facilities and communal living situations, to actually have this type
of testing to try to reduce the spread in their environment and to try
to stay safe. In that effort, to take care of things in the community,
so that the health care system is not overwhelmed.”
Bachman said a few weeks ago, the public health system was
overwhelmed, and people were not getting their test result back until
seven days after the test.
The results of the test will be entered onto the IDPH server within 24
hours. The district will not store any of the test information on
their servers, according to District Director of Technology Jared
Lynn.
The “hand-selected” team has already gone through confidentiality
training in some fashion for their position with the school district.
“We’re working very closely on that so that if you walk into the room
at any given time, you should never hear a name spoken, other than
mine, when they’re calling me,” Bachman said.
“We’re not sharing this information with anyone in the district
differently than what public health shares with me when they have a
student who tests positive.”
Board member Meghan Hennesy asked what the liability for the district
was once it became a “testing center.”
Bachman’s license and a physician at Christie are on the CLIA waiver
the district has obtained.
“My guess is if people get sideways and decide that they’re going to
sue us, they’re going to sue anybody they think that they could maybe
get something out of,” Bachman said. “It’s probably gonna be me, the
district, the board; my guess is that they would sue anybody.”
The district is in possession of enough PPE, including thousands of
shields, masks and gloves. Chief School Business Officer Heather Smith
said she estimates the district has spent approximately $11,000 on
items related to COVID-19.
