Dallas elementary closed because of COVID-19 concerns

Dallas ISD has shut down one of its campuses this week over concerns about the coronavirus spreading among the school’s staff and students.

Caillet Elementary, a 586-student campus located in Northwest Dallas, was shuttered on Monday, moving instruction to online classes after five positive cases among staff and students within the span of a week.

Three individuals tested positive last week, said DISD Deputy Chief of Staff Sherry Christian, with two more positive cases coming Saturday and Sunday.

“We started looking at how we’d be able to do sufficient contact tracing in a timely fashion by Monday morning,” Christian said. “I just felt like it was going to be a situation where it was going to take some time to do that, so it was a better situation to just take a break [from in-person classes].”

The campus is the second school in Dallas ISD to be temporarily closed because of COVID-19 concerns. In mid-October, Hotchkiss Elementary — in Northeast Dallas — was closed for three days, allowing school administrators and central staff to track down those who might have been in contact with positive cases, and perform a deep clean of the school.

Caillet will be closed until Nov. 17 when in-person instruction is expected to resume, Christian said. On Nov. 16, rapid COVID tests will be provided to teachers and staff in the morning, and students in the afternoon.

While five cases aren’t an alarming number, Christian said that the district looks at a number of different “triggers” beyond raw case totals when considering closing a campus.

For example, if the district is struggling to determine how many “close contacts” someone with a positive case had on campus — perhaps involving an administrator who roams the school or an elective teacher with multiple classes — a closure might occur.

Similarly, if 25% of the teaching staff at a given school has either tested positive or is in quarantine, the district might consider closing the campus for in-person instruction a short time since it would be difficult to cover classes with the existing staff or substitute teachers.

Once a trigger has been hit, Christian said, the district will consult with Dallas County health officials before any final decision is made.

According to the DISD’s tracker, there have been close to 900 cases of COVID-19 among staff, teachers and students since the district started collecting case data on Sept. 28. Almost a third of those cases have happened since the start of November, reflecting a larger trend of cases in Dallas County and Texas.

The state is closing in on one million confirmed cases of COVID-19, and Dallas County hit a single-day record on Tuesday, with 1,401 cases.

Jennifer Finley, the district’s director of health services, said that county health officials have indicated that there’s likely a wave of cases on the way.

With the holiday season — and flu season — right around the corner, and a general level of “COVID fatigue” in the community, Finley said she could potentially see a rise in cases within the school system.

COVID response teams have been created on each campus, and the district has been “trying to ramp up” its staff for contact tracing, Finley said, “as to not exceed our bandwidth” if cases at schools do start to climb.