Board of Health

Office of the Board of Health City Hall 718 Main Street Fitchburg, Massachusetts 01420 978-829-1870 This was a Joint Board of Health/School Committee Meeting of the City of Fitchburg held at the Legislative Building at 700 Main Street and recorded by FATV Studios, Fitchburg, on September 23, 2021. The meeting was called to order by Mayor DiNatale. The meeting opened with a salute to the Flag lead by Mr. Thompson, Asst. Superintendent. Present: Stephen Curry, Director Ian Murray, Sandra Knipe, Dr. Bogdasarian, Chair; Robert Jokela, Superintendent, Jon Thompson, Assistant Superintendent, Mayor Stephen DiNatale, Chief Ernie Martineau, Peter Stephens, School Committee, Jean LaBelle-Pierce, School Committee, Aidan Horgan, School Committee, Dorothy McNamara, Nurse, Kathleen Jones, Nurse, Jacquelyn Wehtje, Petitioner. COVID-19 Update: Director Curry asked if it would be acceptable to remove his mask while speaking but will continue to social distance so folks can understand him. Acceptable by all. Mr. Curry - COVID-19 statistics update for Fitchburg. As of noon today there is 242 active cases that is six more than we had on Monday. The last seven days we've had 137 confirmed cases nine less than Monday. In the last two weeks we've had 264 cases, 30 more than Monday. The last 30 days 437 confirmed cases. The total cases since March 1, 2020 when we began tracking this is now at 5393 total cases. Our positivity rate is at 5.7. Total positive tests in the last 14 days is 252. Total tests in the last 14 days is 4982. These numbers are from DPH and will be on the city’s webpage this evening. Superintendent Jokela prepared a graph that shows the cases from August 13th up until September 20th which will show a steady rise in the last month. A comparison from where we were in a similar timeframe from 2020 to 2021. This time last year we had 862 total confirmed cases, this year we are at 1229 which is 367 more cases. Active cases at this time on September 23rd last year there were 12. Today we have 242 active cases. At this time last year between March and September we had 81 deaths & many of those were in the nursing and long term care facilities. As of 2021 we've had 8 deaths. In August & September of 2020 we had one and the same time period in 2021 there has been two deaths. All the hospitals in the region have a surge space base being used by COVID patients. UMass has 14 spaces taken up in the surge unit. This information is as of September 22 and it's much different information than it was last year. There are serious cases of COVID-19 in our hospitals. Hospitals staff are actually suffering again from various COVID infections as breakthrough cases so staffing is an issue as well. Superintendent Jokela stated this graph is the Fitchburg Public School Safety Check Consent. The school department has started a voluntary what used to be called pool testing now it's called safety check testing and this is the nose swab testing that's performed in the classroom. This year we have a different vendor performing that test. Yesterday was the first day that the safety check testing was performed this school year and after reviewing the September 15th voluntary signups we asked staff to go to the website and consent to the testing. The percentage of staff increased from 35% to 64 almost 65%. The percentage of students across the district increased from 20% to 30% from the 15th to the 23rd so we are experiencing an increase in voluntary testing among staff and students. For an overall population we're getting closer to 40% of staff and students who have voluntarily signed up. S. Curry continued to discuss the slide presentation and according to DPH Vaccination rates as of September 16, 2021 kids ages 12 to 15, 60% of Fitchburg of that age group in the city is vaccinated. Kids aged 16 to 19, 50% are vaccinated in the city. Kids age 20 plus about 62%. The schools have a goal of October 1st to reach 80% so that they can lose the mask mandate set forth by DESE. Superintendent Jokela stated The Consent Numbers show the same information as the Safety Check consent except one week apart. The numbers as of today for people who have signed up for the safety check formally known as pooled testing by school. All our schools from high school to our elementary schools show the staff percentage has increased from 35% to 65% and the number of families who have consented to having their students tested from 20% to 30% and the overall numbers from 26% is now 42%. We are seeing increase in the voluntary signups for the safety check testing which is the nose swab testing so we're thankful for that because that allows us to identify any potential COVID cases in the district among staff or students. Sandra Knipe asked who is doing the pool testing or the consent testing, and Supt. Jokela responded that it depends on what school it is. Asst. Superintendent Thompson stated that in every school we have a posting and someone that handles the COVID testing, so it's different and varies by school. J. LaBell-Pierce stated that the kids are self-administering it, swabbing their own nose. S. Knipe stated that yes but the tester has to wait 15 minutes and somebody still has to coordinate it. S. Curry continued discussing the slide presentation and stated the current active cases as of Monday of the 236 cases we had on Monday age 0-5 there were approximately 22 cases, ages 6 to 10 there are approximately 28 cases, ages 11-15 there were approximately 20, ages 16 to 20 there were approximately 21. Mr. Curry stated he has provided some sample testing mandate language as part of the slide presentation. This language is from another community to use as a guide with basic language saying that the employees will agree to sign an agreement that they will be tested on a routine basis. The intention of this language is for these committees to discuss and impose if it fits for Fitchburg. The language does also includes exemptions. The presentation also includes language regarding a vaccination mandate within the public schools for discussion and would require employees to become vaccinated or provide exemption status on an exemption form. Exemptions can be either medical or religious exemptions or provide proof of vaccination. The language also includes a statement that if the city were to adopt these guidelines that the city would provide vaccination clinics. The vaccination date on this form is October and that is just a sample. There have been recommendations on a date but that I will leave open for discussion after this presentation. J. LaBelle-Pierce stated she wants to have some clarification and has questions about this process tonight. I know coming out of subcommittee of the school committee we had several proposals that we wanted to vote on. A vaccination mandate for staff, a testing mandate for students, and a testing mandate for all students involved in sports and extracurricular. That would include testing mandate for advisors and coaches. According to the athletic director this is a very difficult thing to gauge every day. Kids playing sports are not wearing their masks so it would just be a helpful tool to be able to have. What will be the voting process on these proposals? Mayor DiNatale stated we can only vote on what's on the agenda. J. LaBelle-Pierce stated the agenda is very vague about mandates. Superintendent Jokela stated one of the things that this order or mandate would still require would be some bargaining with the respective units. We have shared some information and documentation with those units last week to take back to their membership. They were aware that there was a joint meeting tonight with Board of Health and the School Committee. As the Superintendent my number one my goal is to keep us safe and have a healthy school system. The mask mandate has helped as one mitigation strategy against COVID-19. Having a testing mandate for staff clearly has improved dramatically over the last week but until we know from a staffing perspective we can have 100% tested because we have had staff and students have breakthrough cases so testing just for those who are unvaccinated is not enough with this Delta variant. I believe that the vax mandate as mentioned or stated in this proposed agreement along with the two exclusions for medical and religious reasons has been standard an used in other districts where various units and school committees and towns have agreed to so those would be the things at this time that I would propose. I know Ms. LaBelle- Pierce and Mr. Stephens have also talked about the after school programming the extracurricular which is a little bit different from the standard school day. School districts are not required to provide extracurricular testing so the testing requirements and vaccination requirements can be different and especially in the cases where we hire part-time coaches who are not school staff or they could be after school tutors so having that extra level of COVID risk mitigation would be helpful as we continue to go through this pandemic. This would be my request of the Board of Health to issue some type of order to that extent so then I can go back and have an agreement that has dates that allow some flexibility in time for people to follow the agreement. Mayor DiNatale asked if it would not be advisable to wait on a vote until collective bargaining groups decide on whether or not this is something they will accept. Asst. Superintendent Thompson stated if this is something that is passed by the Board of Health it is not required for us to go back and negotiate that with the union. Ms. LaBelle-Pierce stated there's also the possibility that the school committee passes a vaccine mandate should the Board of Health not. Superintendent Jokela stated the school committee is not a Health body. Ms. LaBelle-Pierce asked we are in a combined environment right here are we all going to vote. Superintendent Jokela stated he doesn’t believe it's necessary for the school committee to vote. This is a Board of Health decision to make. Dr. Bogdasarian stated if he is understanding this is, it is going to come down primarily to a decision by the Board of Health rather than the school board as to what should be mandated or at least strongly suggested for the schools. Dr. Bogdasarian thinks it would be helpful to the schools if it were to mandate vaccinations be performed or required and that testing be performed. I think that would be helpful for the schools to get to the 80% so that we can get rid of these masks. I think it's the right thing to do for students and staff to protect them. Superintendent Jokela stated the mask order has not been rescinded either by the Board of Health or above that the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. Testing would cover, again all staff presently at 65% now, so the remaining 35% would have to participate in the testing and then for the vaccination mandate a large number of our staff have been vaccinated though not all, and this would serve as incentive to get vaccinated. We still need to continue the masks wearing and we're following clean practices in school hand sanitizing. Dr. Bogdasarian stated if staff or a teacher refuses to get vaccinated that person would not necessarily have to leave their position but that person could be tested every couple of weeks and as long as that person made the minimum testing requirement every week. Superintendent Jokela commented that Dr. Bogdasarian is correct. Dr. Bogdasarian asked if any members of the Board of Health have any additional comments or questions or if anyone on the School Committee has any additional comments or questions. Ms. LaBelle-Pierce stated I would like to make some comments. I'm a teacher, not in Fitchburg. I just I feel like it's important to say and think about what the reality of a school is and I feel like I can give some insights into that having done this job for over two decades. I think if you ask yourselves right now how many people do you come into contact with every day how many mitigation policies have been put in place for you to stay safe from COVID infection I think it's probably a lot right now. I see 115 kids a day and I can tell you that about 15% of them are not very good about keeping their masks on and I have no idea what their vaccination status is. I know I'm vaccinated and therefore hopefully protected. If you look at the UMass Memorial ICU's right now every possible tool that we could use should be engaged at this point to know what we're dealing with. I personally am sorry it's falling to the Board of Health because I would relish the chance to vote for this and I hope maybe at some point I will be able to vote for it but I honestly think we have been given free testing, I don't know why we wouldn't mandate testing for every student and staff. We would then have a lot of data we would be able to protect people and we'd be able to prevent infection perhaps from spreading in people's families because that's where it's spreading. I'm hopeful that it's not going to spread in schools because we are wearing masks and most people are vaccinated, but I have to say the Fitchburg numbers are low like 60% or 65% that's not high enough to meet the 80% threshold that the state wants to see and it's time to make sure that we're going to protect families in this city. So personally I wanted to see language about testing of students and I'd like some clarification still because I still would like to make sure that we are going to mandate testing of people in extracurricular activities. I don't know if that's going to be a Board of Health decision but that was definitely something that the student support committee wanted to put a vote out for. I really thank you for your service, I think Steve Curry has been great and giving us updates about where we're at. We all were hoping this wasn't coming back I think we are all tired of it but I live it every day. I see a lot of kids too not that Fitchburg public schools has fights that you have to break up but just this week I've had to break up two fights, masks are off kids and are all around each other it’s not this neat and tidy little thing that everybody stays three feet apart from each other it's not really doable to stay three feet apart from each other in education and it shouldn't be. Superintendent Jokela stated if the Board of Health decides to issue a new order and we were able to as a school district have record of staff who are vaccinated that would also help us from a test and stay perspective to know different protocols for people who are vaccinated and those who aren't vaccinated in terms of if they have to quarantine or how long they have to quarantine. It also helps potentially keep staff and students in the building as well. Dr. Bogdasarian stated there are exemptions for medical reasons, such as allergies or I just can't take it or we have religious exemptions for whatever reason, do we have exemptions for people who just don't want to get it. What happens to those people? Superintendent Jokela stated they're being tested at the minimum once a week potentially again the Board of Health could say testing twice a week if so necessary and in this sample agreement those who don't have documentation they would then be responsible for their own N95 mask. There will be some things that we'd have to bargain. Anyone who failed to participate in testing may be subject to progressive discipline. We're requiring that the testing be for all staff. It's our hope that we do not have to resort to that and everybody will agree to be tested. The participation increased in the last week we've gone from 35% to 65% staff have stepped up and appears that they're willing and whether it's 35% that remain or 30 the goal would be to get through 100% so that we can at least from a staffing perspective have a complete understanding on a weekly basis who potentially may be positive because we want to limit the spread of this virus in our school and in our community. Public comment – Jacquelyn Wehtje, 170 Belmont St Ms. Wehtje stated she wants to comment on the COVID-19 update portion of the presentation. Some of these statistics are misleading. For instance the case number went up that’s because a lot more tests are being done. When you do more tests you’re going to get more cases. Looking at Maven the MA DPH website the most recent number of tests was 4297 that covers a two week period prior to that it was 3678 before that it was 3482 before that it was 3088 you test more people you're going to get more positives. I'm not sure how you came up with a positivity rate of 5% when I looked on Maven I saw Fitchburg was at 3.54%. The most recent interval which I checked yesterday prior to that it was 4%, which is higher prior to that it was 3.93% which is higher so the positivity rate that I saw for Fitchburg was coming down. This is consistent with the nationwide trends except for the Pacific Northwest. Delta has peaked in the United States we see other towns like Provincetown and Kingston MA., which are rolling back their mask mandates. I think we have a state mandate to cover schools daycares and other facilities and the local mandates are redundant and it's unnecessary and it should be repealed. Anyone who is at serious risk of COVID has the opportunity to be vaccinated. The average age of death in Worcester County of a COVID patient is 74. I also looked at their chart of hospitalizations it's mainly older people and you can't even see the younger kids on the graph, that's how few there are. There are cases but they're not being seriously impacted, and in any case the state mandate covering schools can take care of them. I don't believe a city mandate is needed it restricts people and restricts adults and we have the opportunity to make our own decisions and protect ourselves with a vaccine and not be forced to wear a mask if we want to go someplace like the library. I would also bring to your attention the case in the Miami public schools this school year. They had a COVID outbreak and it was serious. 13 people died and none of them were students, all of them were teachers and staff who had refused to get vaccinated. You know that's their choice and they paid the price for it but I don't think vaccinated people like myself should be forced to wear masks to go into a municipal building and I think things are getting better. We are over the Delta peak and we need to celebrate that success and move forward with lifting restrictions. Thank you. Sandra Knipe questioned how Ms. Wehtje can access Maven. Ms. Wehtje stated she has a link that allows her into the site. Sandra Knipe stated for the record to access the Maven website data you must be trained and the State has to appoint you and it has to go through the state Department of Public health. Kathleen Jones stated that is the DPH website, not Maven. Mayor DiNatale stated this was a public comment and this is not a debate. Kathy Jones stated being one of the Fitchburg Board of Health nurses we track all the clusters in the city which include several daycares, businesses, & schools. Several of them had clusters including most of the school with a few exceptions in the last three to four weeks. If our kids and/or teachers are positive they're bringing it home to their kids. We need to mandate vaccines and we need to do as much testing as we can. If they don’t do testing they won’t know the data and we can’t make it safe. Dottie McNamara stated Fitchburg State University did mandate for vaccination. According to the COVID tracking team FSU is now at 90% vaccinated faculty and students. Sandra Knipe made a motion to approve the school testing mandate for the staff of the Fitchburg Public Schools and we mandate vaccination for all of the staff members in Fitchburg Public Schools. Mr. Curry stated there is a link to watch this public meeting through FATV remotely and they we should be sure that there is no further public comment from the remote participants. Asst. Superintendent Thompson stated he is on the site and there is nobody in attendance. Superintendent Jokela stated there is language in the agreement that would address individuals with religious, medical as well as individuals who refuse to do the testing. Ian Murray made a motion to approve weekly testing mandate for all staff as a condition of employment of the Fitchburg Public Schools. Motion was 2nd by Dr. Bogdasarian. All were in favor. Motion carries. Ian Murray made a motion to approve the vaccine mandate for all Fitchburg Public School employees unless they have a medical or religious exemption. Motion was 2nd by Sandra Knipe. All were in favor. Motion carries. Mr. Curry ask if there is a need to have a deadline of when the vaccination should occur. Superintendent Jokela stated from a bargaining perspective just to meet with the units because this proposed agreement assumed would have been in place before the start of school and with school already started there would need to be some leeway to negotiate the dates. Sandra Knipe stated the date will be subject to negotiations. Ms. Labell-Pierce stated for the group that is involved in the school committee, she would like to know when we can consider and vote on mandating students who are involved in athletics to test. I don't want to leave this meeting without an understanding of when that can happen. Ms. Knipe stated this can be placed on the agenda at a future Board of Health Meeting Mr. Stephens stated his concern is there are 100 football players 75% are vaccinated 25% are not. A vocational school on the South Shore as already lost the week and possibly more this season could be ending. I would hate to see 100 athletes lose out on another season because somebody is not vaccinated or wearing masks. Superintendent Jokela stated after speaking with athletic department staff for the winter season we would need to have this in place before November 19th. The next BOH meeting is October 14th therefore unless there's an emergency reason to meet we would be ok for the next season of activities. Mayor DiNatale made a motion to adjourn. Motion was 2nd by Mr. Stephens. All were in favor. Motion carries. Meeting adjourned at 6:30pm.