News Update

West Contra Costa Unified to cut ties with Covid tester due to slow responses

West Contra Costa Unified is terminating its relationship with Hayward-based Covid tester Predicine Labs after multiple reports of delayed responses.

Starting Monday, the district will partner with LSA Labs to conduct weekly testing at each of its schools, disaster preparedness and safety consultant Michael Booker announced at Wednesday night’s school board meeting. LSA will do antigen testing, which will yield results in 15 minutes, Booker said.

Though Predicine conducted the testing at all of the district’s schools, the district and a different company handled the contact tracing.

School board members commended the district’s decision. At school board meetings, parents and teachers had complained that contact tracing was taking too long. One teacher didn’t find out she had been exposed to someone who tested positive for Covid until that person texted her five days later, said Marissa Glidden, president of the district’s teachers union.