As of Thursday, September 16th, there have been six reported positive Covid-19 cases at Novato High since the return to school on campus. This accounts for approximately 0.4% of the total enrollment.

Every person who tests positive is required to stay at home for at least 10 days and are only allowed back once they have been fever-free for over 24 hours. 

However, this has some meaning for all students that have been exposed. According to the NUSD guidelines, those who have been in contact with a positive case, are fully vaccinated, and are asymptomatic may stay on campus, participate in extracurricular activities, and are not required to, but are encouraged to get tested five days after the exposure. 

Principal Mark Brewer also wrote to the parents of the students exposed, “Please provide proof of vaccination to your school if you have not already done so.”

Those who are not fully vaccinated are allowed to continue attending school, but are not permitted to participate in any extracurricular activities for at least eight days after being exposed, and must get tested five days after exposure to the positive case. This raises the question of how effective these protocols have been. 

Social studies teacher Danny Kambur conveyed his opinion on the Covid-19 safety measures.

 “I think they’ve been pretty successful so far. I know that NUSD has reported that it’s a fraction of a percent of kids at Novato have tested positive, so it seems to me that it is working,” said Kambur.  

NHS senior Soph Vega had another idea.

“I feel like having people who were exposed still come to school so soon after exposure is not the best idea. But then again, I understand that we all need to be in school and we need to keep up with our classes and that is hard to manage,” said Vega. 

According to the Marin IJ, the amount of cases in Marin County schools is far lower than expected and nearly equal to the amount of cases last school year, regardless of the new variants, less-restrictive safety measures, and increased number of students attending in-person school. 

Plus, recent data collected by the Marin County Office of Education and the Marin County Emergency Operations Center shows that in the first five weeks of the school year, there have been a total of nine suspected school transmission cases in public schools in the county, representing nearly 7.6% of the total number of officially reported cases in Marin County. 

“I don’t like the fact that regardless of your vaccination status, if you were in close contact with someone with Covid-19, you can still come to school,” expressed Novato High sophomore Liam Everson. “It’s easier for you to spread it if you are unvaccinated.” 

For the most part, the safety protocols on campus have been effective in limiting the number of cases and exposure, resulting in a successful return to campus.