Glen Ellyn School District 41 is using a COVID-19 surveillance program through SafeGuard Surveillance, which is owned by a board member of another school district, according to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request.
The program is set to continue through at least June 4. SafeGuard will provide test kits and will provide results from the test kits after they have been turned back in.
“Glen Ellyn School District No. 41 … is offering a program to perform a non-diagnostic COVID-19 ‘RT-LAMP’ surveillance assay … as part of the District’s efforts to maintain a safe environment for our school community,” the documents state. “This Surveillance is being used as one part of the District’s overall safety protocols that include masks, social distancing, cleaning, and other mitigation strategies.”
Glen Ellyn School Board President Dr. Robert Bruno sent Ed Campbell, who is on the school board in District 102 and is the owner of SafeGuard, an email in October asking to learn more about the testing.
“In a nutshell, because of interest from many more school districts than we can help in the context of our district effort, I've created a company to provide the test at the same cost the district is charging the district we can accommodate ($11/test),” Campbell said in his October email to Bruno. “I'll explain what we are doing in D102, the science behind it and surveillance in general and answer any questions you might have.”
The school signed a contract with the company in November, according to the FOIA documents..
Campbell recently told Patch that he, not his company, was being paid in his own district for the role he’s played in creating the program in District 102.
Campbell is also a professor of immunology and microbiology at Loyola.
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