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A small handful of area school districts have opted into a Pennsylvania Department of Health-sponsored free, onsite COVID-19 testing program.
Penn Cambria, Central Cambria and Portage Area school districts, all in Cambria County, are participating in the program, which district officials describe as convenient for students and families.
"We know that tests have been hard to get sometimes, so this allows for something more readily available," said Jeanette Black, Penn Cambria's assistant to the superintendent. "This allows families to test their kids completely voluntarily, and it's been very well-received."
Penn Cambria is also participating in the test to stay program, which allows asymptomatic students who have been exposed to remain in school so long as they're tested twice -- once between two and four days after exposure and again five to seven days after exposure.
Despite this local participation, school districts as a whole have not been very involved in the initiative. Less than 15% of Pennsylvania schools have opted in as of Feb. 16.
The Altoona Area School District, the largest district in Blair County, is among those not participating in the program.
According to AASD Superintendent Charles Prijatelj, it doesn't make sense for the district to opt in right now.
"We looked into opting into programs, but the thing is, the turnaround time makes it operationally unfeasible," Prijatelj said of onsite testing. "We had some privacy concerns, and with availability of all testing in the county, there wasn't a huge demand to do that large-scale testing on the part of the district."
Blair County Director of Public Safety Mark Taylor said COVID-19 testing is scheduled to continue through April 2 weekdays at the Jaffa Shrine Center's parking lot.
Prijatelj said the district may reconsider if circumstances change.
"If there is a need or if it becomes crucial that we have onsite testing, we will evaluate that and make those decisions as needed," Prijatelj said.
As of now though, Prijatelj said, it's "not extremely critical," and he hopes the pandemic is moving in a direction where such measures won't be necessary.
"I'm hoping that, with cases declining, we are moving into the final endemic phase, where we find ways to move on and deal with COVID-19 without having to do any more exclusions or quarantines and that kind of thing," Prijatelj said.
While Hollidaysburg Area School District is listed on the Pennsylvania Department of Health website as participating in the program, Superintendent Robert Gildea said the district did not join in because it didn't meet the requirements to do so.
"We weren't interested in any form of testing in our schools," Gildea said. Instead, the district wanted to provide free testing kits to families who requested them, but that wasn't part of the program.
Other regional schools taking part in the program, according to the Department of Health, are Westmont Hilltop, North Star and Huntingdon.
Ginkgo Bioworks, a Boston-based biotech company, was hired in July by the state health department to administer the in-school testing program, which is funded by a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention grant for the 2021-22 school year. Schools are eligible to participate at no cost and can choose from several testing options, including rapid antigen tests and weekly pooled testing. Individual students or staff may opt out, according to the health department.
Mirror Staff Writer Andrew Mollenauer is at 814-946-7428.