Monterey County schools taking precautions to stop spread of viruses
SALINAS, Calif. (KION) Monterey County schools are taking precautions to stop the spread of contagious illnesses as the number of coronavirus cases continues to rise in the United States.
Most districts are trying to get the word out to students to wash their hands and stay home if they’re sick, but what’s different with the Alisal Union School District is meal time. They are serving more packaged foods to prevent the possible spread of viruses.
Students at Jesse G. Sanchez Elementary School got packaged vegetarian burritos Tuesday.
“Ultimately, we’re just trying to prevent any of the schools from closing and the safer we can all be, the better,” said Director of Nutrition Irene Vargas.
The district is also removing so called “food share racks” where students
can leave uneaten packaged food or fruit for other students to take home.
Vargas said they’re limiting the use of the salad bar to just lunchtime as well.
“If we have to serve any vegetables, we’re going to start doing that to eliminate the use of touching the tongs on the salad bar,” Vargas said.
The school will still be using re-usable trays and utensils that get cleaned in a high temperature dishwasher.
Sanitizer buckets were out after lunch as staff gave all surfaces a good wipe down.
“We’re just taking extra precautions. Cleaning a little more, which is something that we always do. It’s just sanitizing as often as possible,” Vargas said.
Down in Monterey, high school students are also seeing the impacts of the coronavirus.
The Monterey High School robotics team’s trip to an event in Beijing, China got postponed because of the virus.
“A lot of sadness. A lot of disappointment. It was just another nice thing that we were going to look forward to, especially because it’s my senior year,” MHS Robodores team member Micaela House said.
House is hoping that other team events won’t get cancelled.
The team spent weeks designing and programing their robot that collect balls and climbs.
A regional competition at Seaside high school is still on for now at the end of march.
Monterey High School Principal Tom Newton told KION the school is considering limiting travel for school activities to counties with confirmed coronavirus cases, but there are no plans to do so at this time.
Monterey County Office of Education spokesperson Jessica Hull said school closures are a last resort. They do not plan to do so called “distance education” or online learning due to equity issues in the county, considering not all families have access to wifi or computers.
With the Countywide Spelling Bee this Sunday, MCOE is asking spellers and guests to not come to the Bee while sick and cover their coughs and sneezes.
