School board discusses policy to line up with Minnesota state law

 

The school board Monday heard the first reading of an immunization policy that, if passed, could give the district another option for addressing students that do not comply with state law.

Students are required to receive a slew of vaccinations — varicella (chickenpox), MMR (mumps, measles and rubella), polio and several others — before age 4, and the vaccinations continue throughout school as children receive further immunizations to complete a series or to catch up to where state law requires them to be. The state also recommends some immunizations, such as an annual influenza shot.

But according to Director of Special Services Tami Alphs, over 200 students in Albert Lea Area Schools are not immunized in line with state law. This is over 6.5% of the total district population of the just over 3,000 students the Minnesota Department of Education reported regularly attended in 2018.

“We’re struggling with families to get their children immunized,” Alphs said, and more so than in the past.

State law does provide exemptions — for either a medical reason or students whose parents have, or who themselves have, “conscientiously held beliefs” as to why the student should not be immunized — but Alphs said these 200-plus students do not count those who are exempt by law.

According to the Minnesota Department of Health, 91.67% of Freeborn County kindergarteners were vaccinated for polio, 91% for MMR, 96.33% for Hepatitis B and 90.67% for varicella in 2017-18. These numbers are similar to the statewide average.

Of Freeborn County seventh graders — another benchmark year for vaccination requirements — 97.22% were vaccinated for DTaP, 96.91% for polio, 97.22% for MMR, 97.22% for Hepatitis B, 95.06% for varicella, 88.58% for Tdap and 88.27% for meningococcal. Vaccination rates are similar to the state average; the largest gaps are in Tdap vaccinations (Freeborn County students are 4.42% below the state average) and meningitis vaccinations (3.79% below the state average).

As is, Alphs said, school nurses send letters to families at least twice a year in an attempt to have children be adequately immunized for school.

“We’re trying to alleviate that by forming this policy,” she said.

Implementing the district’s first immunization policy would allow the district to “exempt” children from attending school until they are immunized. Students would have until Oct. 1 to receive the proper immunizations before they would not be allowed to remain enrolled, full- or part-time, until they have their necessary immunizations, Alphs said.

But what “exempt” means is not explicitly defined in the policy. School board member Jill Marin asked whether an exemption due to immunization policy would count as a truancy. Both Marin and school board member Angie Hanson said communication with district families would be important to ensure they have the information they need to understand the policy and become immunized.

These are questions the board raised that Alphs said the district on which will need to do more research.

“We just want to make sure that all children are safe and that nobody is … exposed to or at risk to any … disease that might have been prevented through immunization,” Alphs said.

As this was the first reading of a policy, the board did not vote on it.

In other action:

• School board member Neal Skaar attended the Albert Lea Healthcare Coalition presentation last week as a representative of the district. While the district cannot contribute to a private entity — presenters at the meeting asked employers to change healthcare plans to one that does not cover Mayo Clinic as part of its network and donate the savings to the coalition — Skaar said the district should look into the possibility of significant savings in health care insurance costs.

• Skaar also told the board he and fellow retired teacher Lilah Aas chose 21 recipients for over $7,000 in grant awards funded by the Albert Lea Education Foundation. This is over $2,000 above the grant allotment, Skaar said, but he is hopeful that, with some “creative arranging,” the Education Foundation can manipulate its budget to fund the grants. There were 33 applicants overall, Skaar said, and the grants are intended to provide materials for students and assist student achievement. Common requests include those for math manipulatives — hands-on tools for math learning and instruction — supplemental classroom books and flexible seating or workstations for children in the classrooms as alternatives to the school desk and chair. There were 33 proposals in total.

• Director of Facilities Steve Anderson said while Hammer Complex is moving along on pace, the timeline for completing Halverson Elementary School’s gym expansion and office move feels more squeezed.

“It’s the tightest one, trying to get ready for school,” Anderson said.

They were pushed by the Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry to put in another bathroom for changing, Anderson said, which added a little more to the building. The biggest push is to finish the special education rooms and bathrooms in time for school. The offices are a close call. If they are not done in time for school, Anderson said the elementary can temporarily use the old offices.

The addition of the bathroom also put a squeeze elsewhere: on the project budget. Still, Anderson said the project is under budget.

“Knock on wood, we shouldn’t have anything else go wrong,” he said.

The soccer fields at Hammer Complex should be ready for a Sept. 3 game, Anderson said, and attention at the football field is being focused on the grandstand.