Superintendent Says PUSD Will Implement State COVID Order Early

Pasadena Unified School District Superintendent Brian McDonald announced Sunday the district will implement a state order early and either require proof of vaccination from all district employees or have staff show results of testing beginning Sept. 1, according to a district email sent Sunday.

The state issued an order in August requiring all school staff to either show proof of full vaccination or be tested at least once per week.

School districts must be in full compliance with the order by Oct. 15, a full two months after schools have opened.

McDonald also announced that PUSD is preparing to bring on board 25 additional health professionals to have a team of three on each elementary site who will rotate to the secondary sites each Monday.

He also said that the District is editing the notification letters sent to parents whose children should quarantine because some parents found them to be unclear.

“Among the most critical challenges of COVID-19 is anticipating and quickly responding to new developments that occur almost every day,” McDonald said in an Aug. 22 email.

“The immediate past has shown that PUSD can meet these challenges, but the rapid spread of the Delta variant is making extraordinary demands on our response efforts,” McDonald wrote.

“Given that the schools are a fabric of our community, community transmission of the virus means that there are going to be cases in our schools. As with all school districts, PUSD has had to make major adjustments and implement new processes to protect our school community on very short notice,” he wrote.

McDonald said he will also recommend to the Board of Education that all students 12 and older be required to show proof of vaccination or submit to weekly testing with the informed consent of parents.

The district also plans to bring an additional 25 health care professionals on board. The district will have three-person teams of three at each elementary school that will rotate to secondary sites every Monday.

The school board is scheduled to meet on Thursday.

Last week, Pasadena Now reported that unvaccinated seventh-grade students at Marshall Fundamental School were forced to quarantine after two students tested positive for COVID-19.

Despite the infections and letters to parents at the school, the district initially failed to report the incident in its COVID-19 dashboard and later blamed the lack of reporting on “the press of multiple obligations.”

“We didn’t get this week’s COVID-19 Dashboard right. For that, we apologize,” McDonald said in a statement issued Thursday. “We have taken immediate steps so that it is as accurate as possible in the future.”

The district later admitted that 344 teachers and students have been quarantined.

The district did not respond to several requests for comment early last week and notified parents days after community members began requesting information about the situation.

In Sunday’s email, McDonald claimed that once the district was notified by health authorities that the two cases were epidemiologically linked, district officials notified those who were in close contact with the individuals and instructed them to immediately quarantine.

“Out of an abundance of caution, and above what was required by health authorities, we asked all students in that grade level to show proof of vaccination or be quarantined until COVID-19 tests showed they were virus-free. 7th-grade students who are unvaccinated are required to test,” McDonald said.