Lansing Sun

The Lansing Public School District Board of Education has discussed the district's plans relative to COVID-19 protocols after a recent increase in the number of area cases.

At the board's Feb. 23 meeting, Director of Health Sue Wheeler gave a presentation to the board. She stated that although Ingham County and the state of Michigan had seen a rise in COVID-19 cases and deaths recently, the school district reported its lowest number of cases since September among students and staff. She noted that there were no outbreaks among sports or club organizations and no recent spikes or cases reported, adding that the district is still in the so-called "recovery phase" and local agencies are working together to aid in the recovery efforts.

"One intervention in our community is the creation of the Health Equity Council, or HEC," Wheeler told the board. "The Ingham County Health Department and the Capital Area Health Alliance joined together to create the Health Equity Council. The mission of the Health Equity Council is to address COVID-19-related inequities among black, Indigenous and people-of-color communities within Ingham County. The research shows that the pandemic has disproportionately impacted racial and ethnic minorities throughout Ingham County and across the country. The HEC was created to address these and other health inequities in our region. The HEC invited grant proposals with an interest in BIPOC-focused interventions to address these COVID inequities."

The district’s COVID-19 team submitted a grant application to HEC and was one of 12 organizations in the area that will receive a $10,000 grant. The district will use the funds to provide, at no cost, tangible personal and home-goods supplies to people of color in the school district. Beginning this month, students can select items they need on the website or a paper item form. Those items can then be delivered to the school or picked up at a district location.

The board members asked Wheeler about COVID-19 protocol, which has become lighter and less restrictive in recent months, inquiring how the proposed end of COVID-19 "emergency status" this spring would impact the district. Superintendent Benjamin Shuldiner said he did not think it would have much impact on current procedures and maintained that the mitigation efforts taken by the district have also decreased cold and flu transmission as well as increased student health awareness.