Monday, August 9, 2021
University of Arizona officials are urging students and staff to get vaccinated and mask
as they prepare to welcome students in two weeks to all in-person campus courses.
“We recognize the challenges presented to all of us by the Delta variant, which is more contagious than the lineages of SARS-CoV-2 to that we dealt with last academic year, and which is now the dominant strain in the United States,” said University of Arizona President Robert C. Robbins at the press briefing Monday morning. “This is a very critical moment. I know many of us relaxed over the summer, and we began to think that the pandemic was well behind us.”
At the end of the last school year, the University of Arizona held in-person commencement ceremonies and closed out the year with in-person courses. Over the past year, the university had required masks and implemented mandatory testing, but this year the university faces a rise in cases and an inability to implement key mitigation strategies.
Like K-12 schools, state law bars universities and community colleges from requiring that “a student obtain a COVID-19 vaccine or place any conditions on attendance or participation in classes including mandatory testing or face covering usage.”
Robbins said the university has decided to not challenge state law and will wait to see how the situation “plays out” for some K-12 schools, some of which have instituted mask mandates in Arizona.
When asked if the university considered implementing masks mandates or requiring vaccination before Sept. 29, when some argue the law comes into effect 90 days after the legislative session adjourns, former surgeon general and distinguished professor of Public Health Dr. Richard Carmona said the law was formerly an Executive Order, mandated by Gov. Doug Ducey.
“It is a law or an Executive Order, prior to the law, which mandates what we can and can't do, and we're working tirelessly to try and maximize our ability to keep the university safe, and open it as much as possible,” said Carmona.
Friday, August 6, 2021
FC Tucson wants to help out teachers this weekend, so the local soccer team is donating a portion of ticket revenue to the Marana Unified School District, Faith Christian Academy and the International School of Tucson.
When you buy a $15 ticket to Saturday's game against North Texas SC, you can direct $5 to any of those schools—or you can even pick a school of your choice.
“We felt like it was important to honor teachers after a year and half of tumultuous times,” said Amanda Powers, president of FC Tucson. “We’re excited to provide a safe and fun way to regather and share in the joy of the beautiful game. We hope Saturday’s match is a victory for teachers, for schools, for students, and for our guys on the pitch.”
The game starts at 7 p.m. at Kino North Stadium. You can purchase tickets at FCTucson.com/Tickets.Wednesday, August 4, 2021
The Tucson Unified School District board voted 4-0 at an emergency meeting Wednesday morning to require everyone to wear a mask on TUSD property.
Before school begins Thursday, the board decided to mandate masks on all TUSD campuses, motivated by the outbreaks in the Vail School District and with the growing number of pediatric cases.
Vail School District began school on July 19 and officials have reported 25 COVID-19 cases from students and staff as of July 25. On Monday, the district reported 57 student cases and 12 staff cases as of Aug. 1. TUSD is almost four times the size of Vail.
Last week, Dr. Theresa Cullen, director of Pima County's Health Department, said the county received reports of 56 cases since July 19 and eight outbreaks at schools.
For weeks, health experts warned of the expected outbreaks and high transmission in schools, especially with the inability of school districts to implement masking, because state law passed in June prohibits districts from mandating masks.
Dr. Joe Gerald, an epidemiologist with the UA Zuckerman School of Public Health, who has been tracking the virus since March of 2020, alerted the public to the impending outbreaks in his weekly forecast.
”Unlike the summer of 2020 when we were headed into school re-opening with generally declining rates, the match has been lit and the kindling is aflame this time,” wrote Gerald in an email. “For good measure, we are going to throw on some wet wood (children) in the coming weeks to ensure a robust bonfire for the Labor Day Marshmallow Roast. In the absence of greater vaccination or mask mandates, it is difficult to be optimistic about what might happen when schools are running at full capacity.”
The warning came along with the exponential rise in COVID-19 cases and the prevalence of the Delta variant, which is highly transmissible. Arizona has a high rate of transmission at 175 cases per 100,000 individuals for the seven day rolling average, while Pima County has about half that rate.
Wednesday, July 28, 2021
Pima County is seeing an increase in school outbreaks as students return to the classroom, with health officials warning the spread of COVID in schools could have a significant impact on the community at large.
Pima County Health Department Director Dr. Theresa Cullen told the press this morning that as of today, there have been eight outbreaks in schools and 56 school cases reported in the last seven days since July 19, but there were no outbreaks in the summer. She said they have closed one school classroom in the last five days and expects another 10 cases will be reported today.
The cases are primarily from a school district that is already back in session and some of the outbreaks are in schools and others are from school-related activities, like football, cheerleading or freshman orientations, Cullen said.
“We are now seeing this increase as students go back to school,” said Cullen. “We anticipate that approximately 5% to 10% of the cases we are seeing right now will be due to school as opposed to a maximum of 4% last year.”
Although several studies conducted early during the COVID-19 pandemic suggested children have lower incidence rates than adults, this may be partly due to children having fewer opportunities for exposure and a lower probability of being tested, CDC officials warned in an updated July 9 brief. They noted that studies that systematically tested children and adolescents, irrespective of symptoms, for COVID-19 infection or prior infection found “their rates of infection can be comparable, and in some settings higher, than in adults.”
Wednesday, July 14, 2021
Tucson Unified School District will be offering a remote-only learning option for the coming school year.
On August 5, students who would prefer to learn online will be able to attend Tucson Unified Virtual Academy K-12. Students would follow a regular class schedule, like in-person instruction, and the district would provide the technology devices and software. If students feel they are not fit for online learning, they do still have the option to return to in-person learning. For the coming school year, students can switch back to in-person learning and return to the school they were enrolled in at the 1st quarter Progress report date (September 1-3, 2021), or at the end of each quarter.
While students would be attending class remotely during the week, they can still participate in after-school programs in-person, such as sports or other activities.
In a letter to parents and the TUSD community on Wednesday, Superintendent Dr. Gabriel Trujillo recognized that families would be concerned about returning to in-person learning since the district would no longer be able to require masks in schools after Gov. Doug Ducey signed the Arizona Budget Bill on July 30.
He said the governing board would discuss safety recommendations for school re-entry at the upcoming meeting on July 20. While the district can longer mandate masks, he wrote they still “highly recommend a mask be worn by anyone who is not vaccinated.”
To learn more about the Tucson Unified Virtual Academy email TUVAk12@tusd1.org or call 520-225-6330.
Friday, July 9, 2021
PHOENIX – Health experts are concerned that Arizona’s recently approved budget, which bans public schools and universities from enforcing mask mandates and COVID-19 testing for unvaccinated students, is endangering public health across the state.
In a virtual panel assembled by the Committee to Protect Health Care, a national advocacy organization that aims to “fight for quality, affordable health care that protects patients over profits,” experts weighed in on how the legislation, as well as Gov. Doug Ducey’s June 15 executive order banning masks at schools, could prolong the pandemic in Arizona.
“Students are being linked to community outbreaks, including in Arizona, and they accounted for 72% of all school-related cases in Maricopa (County) at one point in the past spring,” said Dr. Elizabeth Jacobs, a professor of epidemiology at the University of Arizona. “Banning schools from adopting a simple, cost-effective and scientifically proven safety measure like mask wearing while we are still in the midst of a pandemic makes absolutely no scientific or public health sense.”
Daily COVID-19 cases in Arizona have declined since March, according to the Arizona Department of Health Services, with only several hundred new cases per day now compared with the thousands of daily new cases earlier this year. However, in recent weeks, that number has ticked up slightly.
The state’s low vaccination rate also was a major concern for the experts on the panel.
“Only 23.5% of Arizona youth, aged between 12 and 17, have been vaccinated,” said Dr. Ricardo Correa, program director for endocrinology at the University of Arizona. “Policymakers and politicians must do better for Arizona and for children in our state, who deserve elected leaders who will use science and other resources to keep them safe during a pandemic.”
Sunday, July 4, 2021
Monday, June 28, 2021
WASHINGTON – Despite gains in some areas, Arizona continued to rank among the worst states in the nation for education, according to the latest version of a national report that measures children’s well-being across several areas.
The 2021 Kids Count report said Arizona was 47th overall in education, down one spot from 46th a year earlier, evidence that “we’re not doing a very good job in Arizona,” experts said.
David Lujan, president and CEO of Children’s Action Alliance, said the low ranking “stems from the lack of investments we’ve seen in education, not only K-12 education but early childhood education, going back for more than 20 years now.”
“We’re seeing the ramifications of that in things like large class sizes, the lack of full-day kindergarten in every school district, and teacher shortages,” Lujan said. “Those things matter when it comes to being able to provide a quality education for students.”
The Kids Count report, prepared annually by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, measures children’s welfare in each state through dozens of data points split between four broad categories: education, economic well-being, health, and family and community.
Overall, Arizona improved slightly, going from 42nd place in last year’s report to 40th in the latest report. But the state did not crack the top half of states in any category. Arizona did best in health, where it finished 28th among states, followed by 35th for economic well-being and 46th in family and community.
And those numbers are likely to get worse in next year’s report, which will include data from the pandemic year of 2020, which did not make it into this report, experts said.
“Providing access to quality health care, child care, education and mental health services must be the focus as we come out of the coronavirus pandemic,” Lujan said.
Friday, June 25, 2021
Monday, June 21, 2021
