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Maricopa County’s Department of Public Health will create a data-driven plan to guide school reopening decisions, officials announced Wednesday.  

The agency’s director, Marcy Flanagan, said at a Wednesday news conference that metro Phoenix schools should not reopen yet. The percentage of people testing positive for COVID-19, at 12.6% statewide as of Wednesday, is still too high to open up school buildings, she said.

“We would not recommend in-class, teacher-led learning at this point,” Flanagan said. 

Benchmarks from the county will be publicly released in about a week. It is unclear when the agency will unveil its dashboard.

Schools are closed for in-person learning until at least Aug. 17. After that date, it’s up to school leaders to decide when to reopen. 

The Arizona Department of Health Services, the statewide public health agency, is due to unveil data benchmarks schools must consider in reopening. The benchmarks, ordered by Gov. Doug Ducey, must be set by Aug. 7. 

County health officials on Wednesday said they are awaiting the state benchmarks in developing their dashboard. 

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What data will be used? 

The county officials asked a group of school decision-makers to decide what information would be most helpful to educators in deciding whether to reopen. 

Dr. Rebecca Sunenshine, medical director of disease control for the Maricopa County Department of Public Health, said they’ll use three types of metrics in the county’s reopening guidance. They are: 

  • A decrease in the number of COVID-19 cases. Sunenshine said the county is seeing fewer cases reported each day — about 1,400 new cases a day, compared with 2,500 two weeks ago. 
  • A decline in the percentage of positive tests in proportion to the total number of people tested. Fewer people in Arizona are testing positive than before, Sunenshine said. The positivity rate has declined from 21% a month ago to about 13% today, Sunenshine said. 
  • A specific cutoff for the percent of tests that are positive. This metric goes hand-in-hand with the second. The positivity rate should ideally hover below 5% before officials consider reopening schools, Sunenshine said. 

Sunenshine said the data should follow these patterns for at least two weeks, to show that there’s a sustained decline in cases and that widespread testing is available.

Pima County is similarly offering guidance for districts to guide reopening. Leading southern Arizona health officials sent a letter on July 29 to school superintendents advising them not to reopen until after Labor Day at least. Tucson Unified, the county’s largest school district, is following that advice. 

Gabriel Trujillo, Tucson’s superintendent, said deciding to follow Pima County’s order was a no-brainer. He’s concerned about having enough protective equipment for teachers and students. 

“We’ve got enough antibacterial soap, hand sanitizer, paper towels, toilet paper, all of these things — we can start the school year,” he said. “The problem is going to be when we run out. We will run out very quickly.” 

Reach the reporter at Lily.Altavena@ArizonaRepublic.com or follow her on Twitter @LilyAlta.

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