Beginning March 1, 2022, all eligible DCPS students are required to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19. However, Wilson administrators have no information about the enforcement of this policy.

The number of weekly COVID cases has declined recently. “Positive COVID student cases have been dropping every week since we returned from the winter break,” Bargeman said in an email on February 6. During the week prior, Wilson had three cases of COVID-19. This compares with data from the week of Monday, January 24, when the school had 10 cases. 

Bargeman is currently receiving guidance from DCPS on the implementation of the vaccine mandate for staff members, which will go into effect on February 15. Bargeman thinks the District will require employees to have the booster or three shots.

Bargeman thinks that facilities will be obligated to upload their vaccination status into the system DCPS uses PeopleSoft, the same system used for teachers to view their payroll. However, employees can be exempted from the policy if they are granted a religious exemption. 

DCPS will fire all faculty who do not abide by the vaccine mandate, yet Bargeman said he is unclear on what will happen if a staff member refuses to receive three doses of a COVID-19 vaccination. “I think they may be released, but I don’t know,” he said, adding that, “I don’t see how that could happen.”

DCPS will require all students to test before leaving for and returning from February break, which is from February 22-25. “We are supposed to test students before they get back,” Bargeman said. 

DCPS’s vaccination requirements come in response to the city-wide Omicron wave in mid-December through mid-January. On December 22, Mayor Muriel Bowser announced a city-wide action plan that would provide rapid antigen tests to be distributed at DC public schools when the school system returns from Winter Break. 

Wilson was delivered around 3200 tests in order to control the spread of COVID after resuming school from break. Wilson students were instructed to take the test on January fourth and submit a result to the DCPS’s “Safe Return” portal.   

Before entering the building on January 5, students were required to show proof of a negative rapid test. Following this they were given a sticker to signify that they were COVID-free. These stickers were to be shown before entry to the school in the morning and after lunch. 

Wilson plans to continue the sticker system in the February test-to-return protocol. “We’ll come up with a better sticker this time,” Bargeman said. •

“[All students] that came back to school had negative results.” Interim principal Gergory Bargeman said. In addition to this, there was a 100% return rate of teachers submitting test results. 

The following week, Wilson resumed their asymptomatic testing process. Since then, there have been (x) number of positive cases from both teachers and students. 

A similar approach to DCPS’s February break will be held. “In order for students to come back [students and staff] have to have a negative COVID test,” Bargeman said.

In addition to the action plan, DCPS made an update to their COVID-19 response protocol. Previously when a student tested positive, only close contacts to that student were notified. In order to expedite the process and contact as many people as possible, “close contact notifications will be sent to all students and staff in the classroom of a positive reported case if more detailed contact tracing cannot be completed expediently,” said Chancellor Lewis D. Freebee in an email to his DPCS colleagues.•