Montana students head back to school under shadow of virus

BILLINGS, Mont. — The majority of Montana’s 150,000 public school students return to classes this week under a shadow of uncertainty, as officials warned of shutdowns if coronavirus trends worsen. A district near Billings cancelled classes for two days following an infection.

Almost 800 students in the small community of Shepherd were told to stay home until Wednesday while the community’s K-12 campus is cleaned after an infection was reported. School had started in Shepherd on Aug. 19.

“We had a plan in place (for infections) but we did not anticipate it would happen so quickly,” said Shepherd Superintendent Drea O’Donnell. “We’re going to see this across the state as schools open up. Hopefully it’s not a weekly occurrence by any means.”

The resumption of school comes as the number of coronavirus cases continues to climb, with more than 700 newly confirmed virus cases reported over the past week, including 52 on Monday. Ninety-one people have died.

The number of infections is believed to be much higher because not all people have been tested and because people can have COVID-19 without feeling symptoms.

Public school districts statewide are offering at least some level of in-person instruction, ranging from full-time to a mix of online and classroom learning, said Montana Office of Public Instruction spokesman Dylan Klapmeier.

All districts also offer remote learning, he said.

Officials do not collect data on what percentage of students statewide opted for online-only classes this year. That figure is about 20 percent of students in Helena and 22 percent for Billings, Klapmeier said.

Yellowstone County, which Shepherd and Billings, has by far the highest number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the state, with almost 1,800 infections confirmed since the pandemic began. The county accounts for about half of Montana’s active cases, a category that includes people who were recently infected and have not recovered.

County health officials said in deciding whether to keep schools open, they will closely monitor new case numbers, infection prevalence among children, the capacity of local hospitals and other trends.

A county-wide school closure is possible if those criteria worsen, Riverstone Health Chief Medical Officer Megan Littlefield told the Billings Gazette. Such a closure would not necessarily hold for the duration of the school year, she said.

A more likely scenario is a limited closure, for example temporarily shutting down one school to tamp down a local outbreak, said Riverstone spokeswoman Barbara Schneeman.

The decision to shut down the school in Shepherd came from school administrators, not county health officials.

“Everybody is searching for answers and they want the absolutes. Unfortunately we can’t give it to them,” Schneeman said.

Mandates for masks or other face coverings in schools to prevent the virus from spreading are in place in most Montana counties.

The coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms in most people, such as a fever and cough that clear up within weeks. For some — especially older adults and people with existing health problems — it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia, and death.