San Mateo Union High School District prom the site of COVID outbreak

A COVID-19 outbreak at a San Mateo Union High School District prom has led officials to institute stricter testing policies for upcoming formals and ushered in increased support from the state.

About 90 of the 600 San Mateo High School students who attended prom at the Asian Art Museum on Saturday, April 9, have tested positive for COVID-19. Though the district has remained one of the only in the county to require masks on campus after the state shifted its guidelines to “strongly recommend,” Superintendent Kevin Skelly said students were allowed to go maskless because San Francisco has adopted the looser guidelines.

Since the day of the prom, Health Services Manager Sara Devaney said the district reached out to the California Department of Public Health after recognizing the outbreak and was immediately offered support for the district’s small health team.

“We didn’t know this was available to us when the county experienced its surge in January, so this support is greatly appreciated,” Devaney said.

With the state’s support, the district has been able to offer testing daily for San Mateo High School students while the health team conducts contact tracing and helps students return to campus after isolating. In speaking with CDPH personnel, Devaney said they also recommended the district continue to require masking for the next couple of weeks.

Students who do test positive are required to stay home for at least five days and may return only if their symptoms subside and they produce a negative test on their fifth day of isolation or later regardless of vaccination status, according to CDPH guidelines. The district has one of the highest vaccination rates in the county with more than 90% of its students and faculty fully vaccinated, Skelly said.

Skelly noted that while students are required to wear masks on campus, face coverings are not required during events like theater performance or during sporting events. Reflecting on the prom and its connected outbreak, Skelly said it’s hard to say whether students contracted the virus at the dance or at a related gathering.

“While it certainly looks like the prom was the catalyst for challenges, there were also other events associated with prom that happened,” Skelly said. “We’re not sorry we did the prom, that’s for sure.”

Devaney also noted Aragon High School held its prom on the same night as San Mateo High School and has yet to report a case that could be traced back to its event. There was no surge of cases following Burlingame High School’s Spring Fling April 8, according to the district’s COVID dashboard.

Still, the district has implemented stricter guidelines for Hillsdale High School students who are preparing to attend their prom this weekend. Skelly said the roughly 600 students slated to participate in the event are required to show proof of a negative test regardless of their vaccination status.

“The district cares deeply about the health and safety of members of our community and creating opportunities for students to enjoy and benefit from student activities such as performing arts, athletics, and senior rites of passage. We have been and will continue to be driven by these values,” Skelly said in a statement.

As for future events like graduation, Devaney said the district is focused on addressing the current outbreak and monitoring any cases that come out of this weekend’s Hillsdale High School prom before making any data-based decisions.

“We want to do what’s safe and what we need to do in the moment,” Devaney said.

COVID case counts in the county have remained steady, between 39 and 158 per day for the last 30 days. Hospitalizations are low, with six confirmed patients and none in the ICU.

Peter Hanley, president of the district’s Board of Trustees, has been a strong proponent for keeping safety precautions in place including masking, arguing that school campuses differ from other settings like restaurants or stores because students are required to be in class for hours a day.

Hanley also noted that the state has issued a strong recommendation to mask, meaning the public should wear face coverings. But given that prom is not a mandatory event and was held off campus where looser restrictions were in place, he said he understood why the decision was made to allow students to go maskless and sent his best wishes to the students.

“It’s a difficult call. … I’m not going to fault them,” Hanley said. “It was unfortunate that it happened that way and I just hope the students recover quickly from their infections.”

sierra@smdailyjournal.com

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