Troy schools return to hybrid learning, will give rapid test at school

Troy Community School District 30-C’s seven schools will return to A/B split hybrid learning on Jan. 20.

The district is currently in a remote, “adaptive pause” from in-person education.

But parents only have until Jan. 14 to return a consent form for the school nurse or other faculty member to test a symptomatic student with the BionaxNOW Rapid Test.

In a YouTube video on Monday, Troy superintendent Todd J. Koehl said no student will be tested without the consent form. Students, or staff, would have to show a certain set of symptoms that suggest possible COVID-19 infection before the test would be administered.

“We will use this test only on those people who are symptomatic and on site,” Koehl said in the video.

Koehl stressed that the BionaxNOW Rapid Test is not the RT-PCR test but an antigen test, which shows an immunological response to the COVID-19 virus. The test is also a non-invasive nasal swab that gives results in 15 minutes, he said.

In the video, Koehl stressed the school will only test people who have symptoms of COVID-19. A person with only a headache, for example, is not likely to best tested. But a person with a headache, runny nose and fatigue may be tested, he added.

“Those combinations might be indicative of COVID,” Koehl said in the video. “And we may then perform the test.”

If the test is positive, that person will be sent home on a 10-day quarantine, he said. If the test is negative, that person will be sent home on a 14-day quarantine, he said.

Either way, the person will be advised to follow up the rapid test results with a RT-PCR test to either confirm or deny the results of the rapid test, Koehl said in the video.

Parents also decide if their children will remain in remote learning or participate in A/B split hybrid learning. Koehl said in the video that the goal is to, hopefully, gradually increase the time students spend with in-person learning.

“We’re getting pretty excited to get back to in-person school,” Koehl said, adding that the district is going forward with “hope” and “resolve.”

“I have an anticipation that something better is going to happen,” Koehl said in the video. “Also, I trust that something is going to happen that’s better. And I am resolved to make sure that I play a part in making that happen. And I think together we can all resolve to make this year, the rest of the 2020-2021 school year, better because we hope, and we have resolve.”