Rapid test kits arrive on campus

Federal government starts offering free self-testers this week



QUICK PICK-UP—Volunteer Libby Hoffmann passes out COVID-19 antigen rapid tests during Las Virgenes Unified School District’s drive-thru distribution Jan. 14 at Lindero Canyon Middle School. Photos by RICHARD GILLARD/Acorn Newspapers

QUICK PICK-UP—Volunteer Libby Hoffmann passes out COVID-19 antigen rapid tests during Las Virgenes Unified School District’s drive-thru distribution Jan. 14 at Lindero Canyon Middle School. Photos by RICHARD GILLARD/Acorn Newspapers

As the winter COVID-19 surge continues in Los Angeles County, the push for testing is on.

The Las Virgenes Unified School District last week received 10,000 at-home tests courtesy of the state of California, and on Jan. 14 began distribution of kits via campus drive-thrus.

On Dec. 22, 2021, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced the state would provide schools with enough tests for every K-12 student—around 6 million— after the winter break.

This week the federal government rolled out its new website, covidtests.gov, where families could order up to four of the kits free via U.S. mail. Deliveries start at the end of the month, the government says.

LVUSD superintendent Dan Stepenosky said the school district received its share of tests Jan. 12. Parents lined up two days later to pick up their allotment.

Susan MacLean, co-president of the Lindero Canyon Middle School Parent-Faculty Club, was among the parents who visited the school, picking up tests for her three children.

 

“I’m so glad the school district provided this,” she told The Acorn.

As with other parents, MacLean has children at multiple schools—in her case, twin boys at Lindero Canyon and a daughter at Agoura High School—and she was able to pick up tests for all three during one stop at the middle school.

“What a great resource to families,” she said. “I’m always just amazed at what a great job LVUSD does with everything. But when it comes to COVID and testing and communication with parents, they’ve just been great.”

Before the district announced the distribution effort, MacLean said she had no luck finding tests elsewhere.

“I have gone to Costco and CVS and at least five other stores and never found one on the shelves. The fact that the school district was able to supply them is a huge help.”

Each LVUSD location had its own schedule, with the middle school offering tests from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. By noon, said Principal Eric Anhalt, a little less than half of Lindero’s 1,000 or so families had stopped by.

The process was simple: drive up, check in, pick up and drive off.

“Literally, the whole thing will take probably about two minutes,” Anhalt said.

The iHealth antigen rapid test promises results in 15 minutes.

“I hope efforts such as this one today help our families out with one more tool to work with to keep our students and families safe and our school open for our students,” Anhalt said.

Angela Cutbill, a member of the LVUSD Board of Education, said the district has remained nimble through every health order change to ensure safe in-person learning.

“Our goal is to keep our students in school to the extent we can but to keep our students and our staff safe,” she said. “We’ve supported our testing, our vaccine clinics. We had one of the first vaccine clinics in the area.”

She praised Stepenosky for his leadership.

“I think we’ve been ahead of some of the curves on changes. Trying to anticipate changes has been a nightmare.”

Cutbill assessed the school community’s mood as pretty good.

“Despite the surge, kids are in school, learning’s going on, activities are happening and the hope is the surge starts to drop as quick as it picked up,” she said.

“Parents are very communicative. They want kids in school, but they want their kids safe . . . and what the data has shown us across the country is that schools are structured spaces where we can keep them as safe as anywhere.”

For families who missed the first test distribution, makeup days will be available, the principal said. And students can take tests home with them.

“We’ve got enough for every kid in the district,” Anhalt said. “Nobody should be turned away.”

The push for kits comes amid positive news that the Omicron variant might be on the wane.

With most schools open for in-person learning, recent Los Angeles County Public Health data showed test positivity rates dropped among students and staff at Los Angeles Unified School District, the nation’s second largest, although the number of schools reporting cases increased sharply in tandem with the re-opening of the LAUSD campuses.

This story has been updated.