Littleton boards review public health crisis framework ahead of school reopening

LITTLETON -- August 25, 2022, Littleton's Board of Health previews a five-level public health crisis framework at a joint session with the School Committee. Board of Health member Matt Wason presented two draft documents, a Public Health Crisis Response Guide and a companion data dashboard called the ID Decision Support Tool, built on lessons from COVID-19. School Committee member Brad Austin pressed Wason on where the School Committee fit in the framework, noting it was absent from the escalation levels that included the Select Board; Wason acknowledged the gap and said the School Committee should be involved at least at level three. The boards spent the bulk of the session working through what school attendance and health office data could be shared with the Board of Health to replace the state's discontinued pooled school testing program, with Superintendent Justin McCarthy pledging to share data if public health again becomes an active topic for the committee. The Board of Health offered to transfer a portion of its 1,500 take-home COVID tests to the schools and confirmed three vaccination clinics scheduled for September and October through VaccinateRx.