Dr. Aaron Billin, Park County Health officer, addressed the Park County School District No. 1 Tuesday concerning the district’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Billin noted there have been more than 500 cumulative cases of the virus, either positive or probable, in the county. As of Tuesday, he said, there were 69 active cases in Cody and about two-thirds that number — around 45 — in Powell.

“The schools have taken this very seriously and they have done really well,” Billin said.

School superintendent Jay Curtis said there has not been a confirmed case of transmission in the schools. When teachers, staff or students test positive, he said, it has been discovered they contracted the virus outside the school.

Billin said the schools are a safe place for students, but a lack of teachers and staff could derail the system. He suggested the district give teachers and staff the message they need to avoid activities that put them in danger of infection so that they can keep themselves well and in school.

Billin also wondered if the schools go to Tier 2 — in which half the students are in school mornings and half in the afternoons — where the students are going to go when they are not in school. He suggested they might congregate in an unsafe manner.

“Are they safer at school [where contact] can be controlled?” he queried.

Another suggestion was for school nurses to work on contact tracing, but only for staff and students, not the community in general. If it was necessary to ask a family to quarantine, it would be at the behest of public health officials, not the schools, Billin pointed out, so the relationship between the school nurse and the community would not be tarnished.

Billin agreed with Curtis that the community could not control the virus, but could mitigate the situation by applying the same behaviors that have been front and center since March: wearing masks when appropriate, staying home when sick, using social distancing and tracing contacts for positive cases.

“We have to protect the vulnerable, but the state does not want to go back,” Billin said. “We need to keep the schools open.”