Wellesley has begun highlighting metrics on its COVID-19 information hub that will dictate the course Wellesley Public Schools take in terms of maintaining or rejiggering its level of remote/in-person learning hybridness.

Average daily new cases per 100,000 people and testing positivity rate across the state, county, and town are two of the measures. The third focuses on the home communities of public school staff, about 90% of which resides outside of Wellesley. Two of the three measures must be in the green—above agreed-upon thresholds—for things to continue as they are. If two of three are in the red, the school system will reevaluate its model.

The numbers for the first week were good, though could have been better. While Wellesley’s numbers are very strong, those for the state and county are relatively high on new cases, and mean cases for staff communities are above the threshold. The numbers are updated midweek.

What you won’t find in the numbers are stats specific to the school system, as it seeks to balance communications, transparency, and privacy (Wellesley College and Babson College, by the way, do post such numbers on their COVID-19 dashboards).

For updates on positive COVID-19 cases in the schools you’ll need to either be a member of the school workforce or get on an email list that uses a restrictive definition of school community consisting of parents and guardians. The definition of school community broadens of course when votes are needed for debt exclusions tied to school building projects, etc. Though it might be useful for anyone in the community interested in tracking school goings on to get on such a list, say, to learn that viral testing was switched last minute from the MLP to the high school.

We fortunately have contacts within the parent community willing to shed light on this public record information. In a notification issued on Oct. 1 by Wellesley High School Director of Nursing Services Linda Corridan, she cited two unrelated positive COVID-19 cases at Wellesley High, and shared information about the protocol followed. Separately, a Sprague Elementary School student tested positive. This information was eventually shared publicly during a Board of Health meeting on Oct. 7.

The town itself this week remains in the green according to the state’s community COVID-19 map, and is sandwiched between healthy green, gray, and yellow communities.

According to school officials, the initial round of baseline testing of all staff and most students went well, with a few glitches resulting in some results getting to individuals later than planned due to data entry issues, and some results not making their way to the Massachusetts Virtual Epidemiological Network (MAVEN) in a timely manner.

“Using two different vendors, we learned a great deal about the logistics involved in each step of the process and what worked well and what needed to be improved,” wrote Supt. David Lussier in his weekly superintendent’s bulletin. But protocols in place to ensure contact tracing and other safety measures were taken worked as planned when the positive cases were identified.

So the viral testing program continues to morph. Initially, the school was looking at symptomatic testing as part of the mix, though has now deferred to the town on that. The school system is, however, looking to broaden phase 2, dubbed surveillance testing, beyond just faculty and staff, about a third of which was to be tested weekly.

Now Lussier says that surveillance testing could include weekly checks on all faculty and staff, as well as potentially all Wellesley Middle School and High School students. This would involve an at-home saliva testing kit, rather than nasal swabbing that students used the first time around, that would be returned to the school and sent from there to the lab.

Wellesley has been vetting a firm called Mirimus that pools samples from groups of saliva tests to produce results.

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The Wellesley Public School system’s year is just underway, and much of the talk is already about testing. In this case, we’re talking viral testing to help staff and students stay safe during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Members of the school community already know the drill, but for the rest of the community, we figure you might want to stay in the loop as well.

For those taking part in in-person learning and/or fall athletics, they’re required (staff) or strongly encouraged (students) to get tested so that the school system has a baseline from which to work. Students will be tested over the weekend and on Monday at Wellesley High School (note the change in location from the MLP garage). Because it’s a public school system, students cannot be mandated to get tested.

Ongoing surveillance, or assurance, testing of staff will take place in the weeks to come. This is designed to help limit the silent spread of the virus through asymptomatic individuals. Testing of symptomatic individuals will be handled outside of the school system’s viral testing program, as Supt. David Lussier outlined last week at a School Committee meeting.

A webinar on the testing pilot made available via Wellesley Media dives into all of this more deeply. It includes explanations of the types of tests being administered, what will happen if you test positive, and information on the organizations that the school system has aligned with for the testing (Boston Heart Diagnostics of Framingham and Rapid Reliable Testing, whose testing business grew out of an ambulance firm’s own testing efforts). Note that the webinar was recorded before the testing location change was announced.

The big message from Wellesley’s Jesse Boehm, a member of the testing pilot’s scientific advisory team and the parent of two school-age children, is that the more people who get tested, the more effective this program can be in stopping the spread of COVID-19. Ninety percent is a good goal to shoot for, he said, though 95% would essentially assure a safe environment, while also displaying a strong community effort that could inspire other cities and towns.

The testing/screening program is part of a broader set of precautions including social distancing, mask wearing, ventilation, cleaning, etc. The importance of testing is “to provide reassurance, both emotional reassurance and public health reassurance, that there really are as few cases in our schools as possible,” Boehm said.

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