Land purchase in Loreauville on Iberia Parish School Board agenda

The Iberia Parish School Board will be holding a special meeting Monday to vote on changing the school district’s COVID-19 quarantine policy for students.

The approval would be in line with recent state changes to COVID-19 school policy. On Feb. 15, Gov. John Bel Edwards issued a proclamation that removed the opt-out provisions that required local school districts to abide by the CDC recommendations regarding quarantine, testing and contact tracing.

According to a document from Superintendent of Schools Carey Laviolette regarding the change, it was recommended that the school board adopt its own policy regarding COVID-19 to replace the state recommendations.

The proposed policy states that students experiencing COVID-like symptoms will be sent home and remain in isolation rooms until picked up from school. Those sent home should get tested or seek an evaluation by a healthcare provider, and a positive test shall require a quarantine of five days. A return to school will be predicated upon the student experiencing improved symptoms and no fever. The returning student wear a mask for the first five days of his or her return.

According to Laviolette, the Omicron variant of the virus “came in like a hurricane” and then exhibited a sharp decline one month later, but also did not have the potency of previous variants.

During the peak of the surge in January, the Iberia school district had 426 positive students, 1,716 direct contacts, 238 positive employees and 173 direct contacts.

One month later, there has been a sharp decline to 115 positive students, 422 direct contacts, 27 positive employees and 14 direct contacts.

In a single week from Feb. 9 through Feb. 16, the Iberia Parish COVID-19 positivity rate declined from 21.6 percent to 13.6 percent.

“The huge number of students and teachers who were COVID positive or had to quarantine as a result of contact tracing will prove to cause yet another abnormal learning year for students,” Laviolette said in the letter to the school board.

“However, safety was of the highest priority.”

The meeting takes place at 5:30 p.m. Monday at the school board’s administrative office on Jane Street.