(Disclosure: Rose Law Group represents HealthyVerify Certification)
By Mike Sunnucks | Rose Law Group Reporter
For Marvene Lobato the biggest challenge for the COVID-19 pandemic is the uncertainty presents on numerous fronts.
Lobato is the Superintendent of the Fowler Elementary School District in Phoenix. The district has 7 schools, a child care center and 4,500 students.
Like other school districts and universities across the country, the Fowler district and Lobato are trying to figure how and when to reopen.
To help with that effort Lobato and the Fowler school district have turned to HealthyVerify Certification (HVC).
Arizona-based HealthyVerify is the only medically based, scientific, and professional certification company in the U.S. helping reduce the risk of COVID-19.
HealthyVerify has helped and certified healthy safety efforts for a range of clients including national real estate firm Offerpad, the Phoenix Rising FC soccer team, Jewish Family and Children’s Services, Goodwill of Central and Northern Arizona as well as the City of Goodyear and the Spring Training complexes for the Cleveland Indians and Cincinnati Reds
The company helps its clients go above and beyond U.S. Centers for Disease Control and other guidelines and recommendations for curbing the spread of COVID-19.
HealthyVerify (HVC) partners with infectious disease experts from the Barrow Neurological Institute and researchers at Arizona State University to reduce the risk of spreading infectious diseases.
Lobato said she learned about HealthyVerify from the superintendent of the Avondale Elementary School District, which is also working with the health care collaborative.
Lobato said she first rang HealthyVerify over one weekend. “I was just in awe,” Lobato said of the response time. “I did get a call back within the hour.”
HealthyVerify is helping the Fowler schools develop teacher and staff training for social distancing, universal mask requirements policies and best practices for ‘cohorting’.
The latter is the practice of keeping groups of students and staff consistent and socially distant from other groups to reduce the potential exposure and spread of COVID-19. School cafeterias will be closed to help limit potential COVID spreads and to house quarantined students. Meals will be served in classrooms.
“The one top take away for me is how vulnerable our bus drivers can be,” said Lobato of one of the areas where HealthyVerify is helping the Fowler schools.
She said one plan that was being considered would have had bus drivers help school staff with temperature checks but HVC’s public health experts advised against that because many of the district’s bus drivers are older and potentially vulnerable to COVID-19.
Instead, Lobato said the district will use staff who are less vulnerable to COVID to do temperature checks on students.
The Fowler schools will start its 2020-21 school year on August 17th but with only online classes. Lobato said plans are now to start in-school classes on October 19th.
