What Has Helped La Grange 102 Stay Open All Along

LA GRANGE, IL — In light of the pandemic, many school boards would love to have a molecular virologist in their ranks. La Grange School District 102's board has one, which the superintendent calls "fortuitous."

Dr. Ed Campbell, who teaches immunology and microbiology at Loyola University Chicago, is in his first term as a board member. He helped create the district's program of non-diagnostic coronavirus testing.

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This school year, the La Grange district has offered in-person learning all along. Students are in class every day for 2½ hours, with 30 percent choosing the entirely remote option. No buildings have been shut down.

Of the five nearby districts, two others have been open all semester, said Kyle Schumacher, the La Grange district's superintendent.

Campbell trained the staff on how to handle the testing. Because it's all done in-house, the district is saving money, Schumacher said. It is expected to cost $176,000 for the entire semester.

The tests, which are not FDA-approved, give an indication of "significant clinical findings," not an absolute determination that a person is positive for the coronavirus, Schumacher said. Those who show such findings are quarantined for 10 days as if they tested positive.

On the week of Nov. 16, four people were found to have significant findings. That's of more than 3,000 students, plus staff.

Asked whether the tests have helped, Schumacher said, "I think for us, it has helped our staff to feel more confident and our families to feel more confident. It's about catching kids and staff before they are symptomatic."

The test is saliva-based, involving spitting into a tube, with no nasal swabs required.

In an NPR interview, Campbell said speed and cost are factors in favor of the testing system.

"Anytime you're collecting saliva from anyone, especially a child, it's a lot easier to provide a saliva sample than it is to undergo one of those nasal swabs, especially in the context of the surveillance that we're trying to do," Campbell told NPR.

Campbell, whose son is in the district, said on NPR that he picked a "weird time" to be a molecular virologist on a school board.

"I was able to kind of take what (other experts) were doing and scramble to get everything in place," he said. "But somehow it all worked out."