Superintendent's Weekly Update 9-1-21

 


Hi all,

There is a lot of information to share with everyone this week. Thank you for taking the time to read everything here and enjoy the weekend.

Open Houses

One of our many goals this year is to try and return to a new normal for our students, staff, and community. As you may have seen on the District's Calendar we have our Open Houses scheduled for next week. We are happy to be able to provide these in person for families so that you are able to meet teachers and see your student's classrooms in person. However in order to do so safely we need to add some additional safety protocols to make sure that you and staff are safe. We have created a more formalized structure for the evening to limit the amount of people in classrooms at one time. We are also only allowing one parent/guardian per child to attend. This will again allow for us to make sure we have enough spacing in our classrooms for safety. As a reminder, masks are required at all times when inside the buildings. These safety precautions are in place to keep everyone safe and to make certain that schools stay open. Principals will send out additional information on this shortly as to how things will work in each building.. 


COVID Vaccination Clinic

DHS is hosting a free vaccination clinic on Friday September 17 from 11 to 3. It is open to students the age of 12 and older, and any resident of Douglas.  Students will need to have permission from a parent/guardian in order to receive a vaccination at https://tinyurl.com/DouglasHSVAX.  Middle School Students can register and will be walked over to the High School or can be picked up and brought to the clinic by parents. Please notify the MS office if you are picking up your student. Adult walk-ins will be accepted, but they do prefer that you register.


COVID Testing Plan:

Earlier this week I sent out a memo regarding our testing plan and a link for you to opt into the testing. Here is a shortened version of the memo along with a link to the consent form.


Symptomatic testing is used when a student/staff develops symptoms of COVID-19 during the school day; students/staff should not come to school if they are feeling sick while at home. Some symptoms of the virus look identical to other illnesses like the cold or flu, and this test tells us whether a symptomatic student/staff has COVID-19 or not. This is a rapid test, and we receive the results of this test within 15 minutes.

Routine COVID safety checks minimize disruption to learning by helping us catch potential spread of the virus before it starts. Each student/staff administers the safety check on a weekly basis. Two samples are collected from students/staff during the school day. The first sample will be placed in a group or Pool. The second sample will remain discreet and tested if necessary. In almost all cases, it will take less than 24 hours to receive safety check results.

Test and stay allows asymptomatic students/staff who have had close contact with a person who tested positive for COVID-19 while at school to stay in school if the student/staff is not showing symptoms. Instead of needing to quarantine and miss school, these students/staff will take a daily rapid test while they remain in school as long as they are not symptomatic and do not test positive. Students/staff participate in test and stay for seven days after they may have been exposed. 

To participate in the program, you must complete this consent form on behalf of each student/staff. This one consent form will cover all three tests and there is no charge for participating. To learn more about our COVID-19 testing program, please visit DESE COVID-19 Testing. 

In order to be eligible to participate in anyone of the 3 testing options, you must register through the link provided above. Several people have asked if they can only participate in parts of the 3 program and the answer to that is yes. More information will be provided to you next week on how to do this. We are still working with DESE and the CIC Health to finalize a starting date for the testing program. Once we have it we will share it with you.

COVID Dashboard:

Attached is a link to our COVID Dashboard that will be updated weekly. Unlike last year where I sent our letters every time we had a COVID positive case, I will not do that this year. This Dashboard will provide you with weekly numbers by building. We will continue to reach out to close contacts and also to families if they have been exposed to a presumptive positive student.

Saturday marks the twenty year anniversary of September 11. Please take a moment tomorrow to reflect, remember, and pay tribute to all those who lost their lives on this horrific day and to the first responders and the thousands of volunteers and workers who worked tirelessly in the days, weeks, and months after this tragic day.

Respectfully,

Paul Vieira, Ed.D

Superintendent


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