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Reactions to the St. Mary Parish School Board’s decision to delay schools’ reopening to Sept. 8 were mixed, but nearly all interviewed found some positive to the pushed back reopening date.
Patty Meehan, a speech-language pathologist at Raintree Elementary who spoke during the meeting, said that she was happy with the move by the board, which pushed back the start date from Aug. 10.
“We just need some time,” she said.
Meehan said teachers are learning a new way to deliver services to their students through online learning.
“I’ve been a speech therapist 33 years, and now I’m having to learn something very new and how to deliver services using technology,” she said.
Additionally, Meehan said that parents and students need time to feel comfortable with this new way of learning before education commences.
Also, she noted the safety factor on campus with the virus.
“We’re a community,” Meehan said. “We don’t operate in a bubble. The kids come from somewhere, they come to school, they interact with us, and they go home.”
She said being comfortable with the safety comes with lowering the number of infections in the state.
“The governor said it looks like we’re on that track, so this is definitely a good move,” Meehan said.
Craig Mathews, a St. Mary Parish councilman and parent of a West St. Mary High School senior, called the move “a small victory.”
However, he said much more work needs to be done, with stakeholders having a voice in these decisions and the decisions being made earlier on and not at the last minute.
Parents and other stakeholders need to have a seat at the table to engage in these discussions early enough in the process so that there is full understanding of what the issues are and of what the ramifications are so that it eases the fears and the anxiety of our community,” he said.
However, he said he is “optimistic” because the board’s move was “definitely a step in a forward direction.”
Still, he thought the school should not be opened in person within the next four to six weeks because of the state’s and parish’s COVID numbers.
“It should be a 100% virtual only option at least for the first nine weeks,” said Mathews, whose son will be participating in the virtual learning program.
Nelvin Coleman, a grandparent of students at Centerville and in Patterson, was critical of the school system, saying they were “abusing” students for money by sending them to school and were not concerned about their health.
“They’re going to come to school, mingle and jingle, get home and bring it to” family, she said.
She said that school should be virtual only until January, and said her grandchildren will be participating in virtual learning.
Public schools receive state and local government funding, primarily through the state’s Minimum Foundation Program, St. Mary Parish Teresa Bagwell said.
She said this funding is mainly based on the school system’s enrollment in October and February.
“Students enrolled in the virtual option currently being offered by districts across the state remain students of the school system and have the ability to return to their brick and mortar school if they choose to do so,” she said. “Consequently, there is absolutely no truth to the rumor being purported that school districts would be economically impacted in any way by students being educated through the district’s virtual option.”

How many of you felt a sense of relief when the St. Mary School Board voted Thursday to delay the opening of school?
The board pushed back the opening to Sept. 8, about a month later than previously planned. So kids won’t be going back to school during what is, at best, something near the end of the resurgence of COVID-19 cases in St. Mary since mid-June. We’ll have to see what the situation is after Labor Day.
This is not a knock on the plans for reopening that administrators and faculty members have been working on for at least a month to protect students from COVID-19. Nor is it criticism of the board members who resisted a postponement of the resumption of classes. We have important reasons to want to see kids go back to school.
Education is one. A few months with missing or reduced classroom time is a big deal for students nearing graduation, who have plans to make for their life after high school. For children just starting pre-K or kindergarten, missed or diminished classroom time could affect their development in ways that will hurt them throughout their school years and maybe for the rest of their lives.
Then there the kids who rely on schools for a nutritious meal, special educational needs, health care or even the mandatory reporting role of teachers who suspect child abuse.
Economically, this is a bad time to keep a major St. Mary employer, the school system, out of action.
The parish already lost the weekly $600 federal unemployment enhancement, which expired in July. The boost from Uncle Sam brought millions of dollars into St. Mary every month.
Over the weekend, President Donald Trump signed an executive order that would bring back a $400 weekly unemployment enhancement. That would be good news for the more than 2,000 unemployed people in St. Mary, not to mention for the stores where they buy groceries and pump gas.
It’s not clear the president has the power to reinstate a benefit enhancement by executive order. Nor is it clear who will challenge his executive order three months before a national election.
Yet for all those good reasons to reopen the schools, there’s one big reason not to. And we saw it beginning in mid-June, when COVID-19 came roaring back after we thought it was under control.
I’ve covered the School Board off and on for the last few years. I’m sure all the board members would agree that the system’s first and most important responsibility is to protect students from harm.
On Monday, when schools were originally scheduled to resume classes, the school system just wasn’t in a position to honor that commitment.
The number of new COVD-19 cases in St. Mary Parish has been going down for a couple of weeks. This region has more unused hospital capacity, on a percentage basis, than in hot spots such as Lafayette or Lake Charles.
If the trends continue, we’ll be in better shape Sept. 8. At least administrators, teachers, staff members and students will have a better chance to keep everyone safe.

Failing
the test?
Somebody recommended a podcast last week: “This Week in Virology.”
Sounds like a rollicking adventure yarn, doesn’t it?
But, as it turns out, “This Week in Virology” turned out to be interesting because of a provocative claim that federal officials and public health authorities have fouled up U.S. coronavirus testing to a fare thee well.
The author of this indictment is Dr. Michael Mina, who heads Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
We went wrong, Mina says, because most of the testing being done in the country is done with the PCR or RT-PCR tests.
That test works by looking at the genetic material in a sample and determining whether it fits the COVID-19 DNA profile. Part of that process is replicating millions of copies of the virus using a process called polymerase chain reaction. That’s where PCR comes from.
PCR tests are sensitive and accurate. They’re also relatively expensive. Online sources say each test costs at least $15, and more if the test goes to a lab out of state.
Tests haven’t been available in sufficient numbers. Not enough testing materials are available, and testing is slowed because of sporadic shortages of swabs, chemical reagents and the chemicals the samples are placed for their journey to the lab.
PCR tests have also been slow in many cases, mostly because the capability to process tests at hospitals or big commercial labs acts as a bottleneck. It doesn’t do much good to test for a disease that might be with you for only two weeks if it takes a week or 10 days to get the results.
Another sort of test, the antigen test, looks for the presence of antibodies developed by the body to fight the novel coronavirus. The antigen test is cheaper and faster, but it’s not 100% clear that the body makes antibodies before we’re able to infect others. So it may be prone to false negatives.
Mina, the Harvard physician, argues that we’d be better off with a less accurate test that’s cheap enough and quick enough to use frequently, maybe even daily, on a larger percentage of the population.
At least one such test is headed for the Food and Drug Administration for approval. The new test might not make it.
That’s because the FDA is insisting on a high level of sensitivity and accuracy, better than the 50% the new test offers, and because companies are reluctant to be accused of putting a flip-of-the-coin test on the market.
But Mina says the low level of accuracy occurs among people who have been recently infected and aren’t shedding the virus yet, and people who are near the end of the infection, when viral levels are low.
By the time the viral level is at its peak and the patient is able to infect others, even the less sensitive test will return a positive result, he said.
If the test misses a case because the virus hasn’t reached contagious levels yet, it’s no big deal, Mina said. You’ll test again tomorrow, because this test costs only $1.
When the new test does come back with a positive result, the person knows it’s time to quarantine for a couple of weeks, protecting others from infection.
The test is fast, too, with results in less than an hour. And some reporting on the new test says acquiring the sample may be as easy as applying saliva to a test strip.
That means no more nasopharyngeal swabs, the part of the test experience that makes the biggest impression on the minds of patients — almost literally.
Bill Decker is managing editor of The Daily Review.

Donnie Louis Landry Sr. was born on March 20, 1940 in Patterson, Louisiana. He passed away on August 7, 2020 at home surrounded by his loving family.
Donnie grew up in Patterson where he attended St. Joseph Catholic Church. He later moved to Bayou Vista where he was a 49-year parishioner of St. Bernadette Catholic Church. Donnie was also a third-Degree Knight of Columbus.
Donnie is survived by his wife of 57 years, Linda Rae Campos Landry; his three sons and their wives: David and Julie Landry, Duane and Sarah Landry, and Donnie and JoAnna Landry; eight grandchildren: Cory, Lauren, Matthew, Eric, Emily, Jayna, Jack and Evelyn Landry; three great grandchildren: Landen, Hadley and Lilah Landry; and godsons Brian Landry and Ricky Frederick.
He is predeceased by his parents Donnie S. and Helen (Bourdier) Landry; his brother, Charles Lyman Landry; his father and mother in law, Martel and Marie (Lauve) Campos; and his step-grandson Jordan Joseph Mayon.
Donnie had a long career of 35 years at J. Ray McDermott. He spent much of his early career in Amelia, Louisiana and Beirut, Lebanon where he was a Chief Engineer before retiring as a Port Engineer in Amelia, Louisiana. He was well liked and respected amongst his peers and made many lifelong friends at both locations.
Donnie was a great provider and a family man. He loved spending time with his family and friends, especially having a great meal together or boiling seafood. He had a great sense of humor and loved to tell jokes and stories. He had a passion for building and restoring cars and socializing with close friends. Donnie said many times his greatest accomplishment was his family and the legacy he leaves behind. He left instructions for his sons to always take care of each other and to love one another.
Donnie will be forever loved and missed by his family and friends. The family would like to thank Dr. Craig Walker and the staff at Cardiovascular Institute of the South for their outstanding care over the years, as well as Journey Hospice for the love and care given to Donnie in his final days.
A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated in memory of Donnie on Tuesday, August 11, 2020 at 1:00 p.m. at St. Joseph Catholic Church in Patterson, Louisiana.
In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made to the St. Bernadette Catholic Church in his name.

SACRED HEART
Thrift Store, corner of Second Street and South Railroad Avenue, Morgan City, holding a 50 cents sale on all clothing items 8-11 a.m. Wednesdays and Thursdays, throughout August. All proceeds benefit those in need.