As of Feb. 14, the Washington State Department of Health was reporting that the number of pandemic-related absences among Auburn School District students, teachers and staff had plummeted 84 percent from its omicron-variant peak of 15 percent on Jan. 10.

It’s a sure sign that things are finally looking up, as Auburn School District Superintendent Dr. Alan Spicciati told members of the Auburn School District Board of Directors at their regular meeting on Feb. 14.

Given that positive vibe, Spicciati has joined his voice to the growing chorus hinting, or openly declaring, that nearly two years of Gov. Jay Inslee’s pandemic emergency mode is long enough.

To continue it, Spicciati said, would mean subjecting students, teachers, staff and parents to more of the suffering that the physical distancing and remote learning, the cancellations and curtailing of activities, and all the disruptions to regular life have exacted on their well being over the last two years.

“When we see record levels of mental health issues, of lost learning, I think we really need to question the value of staying in an emergency pandemic mode, and think about the value of getting back to a new normal,” Spicciati said. “Pick your favorite phrase, we need to provide our students the opportunity to connect socially and academically at a time that it’s safe to do so.”

Spicciati and Janel Keating Hambly, Superintendent of the White River School District, said as much in a letter they sent last Friday to Washington Gov. Jay Inslee and the Department of Health, and cc’d to the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction and local health departments.

That joint letter, Spicciati told the board, was written with three goals in mind — the first being to tell the untold story of student hardships during the pandemic emergency, and urge those highly-placed officials to think about the impact their decisions have had on the kids.

“I’m not an epidemiologist, I’m the educator, and I think it’s time that the health department pays attention to our students,” Spicciati said.

Ever since Gov. Inslee declared the pandemic emergency in the spring of 2020, Spicciati said, students — who after all belong to the age group with the lowest risk of contracting COVID — have been asked to “perform an extraordinary act of protecting society.”

Citing local and statewide data the Department of Health has collected and posted on its website, Spicciati said that the assessment of some of the risk levels omicron poses to students and to fully vaccinated school staff have been overstated, and said that the risk to children in particular is “very low.”

In addition, Spicciati said, the risk doesn’t accelerate until a person passes 65 years of age, and even that statistic does not span the board.

“We know there are vulnerable folks out there, and we need to protect our most vulnerable, but overall, we really need to think of the reward,” Spicciati said. “When we have one in 100,000 students who have been hospitalized in the omicron surge, and we have the highest ever rates of mental health issues and academic loss, we need to think of where the right balance is.”

The joint letter also asked the higher-ups to consider the impact their mandates have had on teachers and principals, “who need their hands to be untied from the public health job that they have been deputized into, to be able to be the instructional leaders and supports students need in their schools,” Spicciati said.

“I’ve spent the last 15 years of my career trying to help principals support teachers with learning. And our principals don’t do nearly enough of that right now, and that’s because they spend morning, noon, and night on COVID guidance and protocols. So, we need to re-balance that in the interest of our kids. That means that contact tracing has probably served its useful time. I know this is a health department call, but that’s my advocacy, and when we think about testifying and so forth, we want to look at all that,” Spicciati said.

Finally, the letter advocated for educators to be where they have not been to date: at the table with officials when the pandemic-related decisions are being made.

“The point is that decisions are being made at the highest level of the state without boots on the ground in schools. We need folks who are living this, our principals, our teachers and our support staff to be at the table,” Spicciati said.

Gov. Inslee has promised an announcement later this week respecting the potential easing of mask mandates, and Spicciati said the district will inform parents of what comes of that.