Health and Safety Weekly Update

Last week was another busy week with many students and staff throughout the buildings. It was a big week in that PSAT’s were held for almost 400 11th grade students and we also had 300 Seniors for a special Senior Sunrise event. When you consider all that we have going on, it was a strong week with minimal to no disruption due to COVID in all buildings.

I want to take a moment to talk about some unsung heroes thus far this school year:

• For those of you that may not know, staff from many of our special needs self contained programs in K-8 have been teaching and supporting in-person learning since September. Teachers and paraprofessionals come in day in and day out working with these students. Excellent job!!!

• We have had an entire crew of our paraprofessionals leading the RLC programs since Day 1. In some cases, working with this younger population was new to this team, but you would never know it seeing them engage and support these kids every day. Kudos to each of you!!!

• Our Nurses!!! Not enough can be said about this group. Not only have they been taking care of staff and students daily, but they have been in the heart of working through the many challenges of designing protocols for COVID related issues. They have been invaluable to the District and I believe you will appreciate all of their fingerprints on the COVID protocols being distributed shortly. I have to also include their new partner in crime, James Conroy - The District Safety Specialist for being all things COVID from the beginning. This is an amazing team and I could never give enough praise for all they have done!

• We would be remiss if we didn’t give a huge shout out to our Technology Department. As you know, while in a remote setting, technology is the link between students and teachers. Our team has worked tirelessly to make sure that everything has been up and running. Working countless hours distributing Chromebooks and making sure that everyone stays connected.

• Finally, our administration, secretarial staff and custodians/maintenance teams! Everyone has been working on site for some time with the custodians/maintenance holding the most COVID tenure. These folks have been doing everything possible to keep our buildings, not only beautiful, but safe and clean. Taking care of the buildings is a full time job and needs all hands on deck - we thank you. Thank you to the secretaries who make sure everything is running smoothly and that all things will be ready for whatever comes their way and of course, our admin for holding down the 12 forts and working non-stop.

Lastly, we hope you will join us tomorrow evening, Wednesday, October 21st at 6:00 p.m. for our virtual Board of Education meeting which will be a working session to discuss our reentry plans. Please click on the following link prior to the start of the meeting to join the meeting. https://www.sbschools.org/board_of_education/meetings/agendas__minutes_and_videos. Information on how to join the meeting will also be available on the South Brunswick School District website at www.sbschools.org on the banner.

Please see below for the weekly data report.

Thank you and stay safe everyone!

Scott

Regional Rating

(Latest Published Results)

Yellow - Moderate

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1SqoRjCq6zGX-k10Sh0eiiGHYyFy0RiQZS7oUMVKPRZk/edit

Number of cases (last 7 days) in South Brunswick

2

Number of school age children cases (last 7 days) in South Brunswick

0

Number of Students and Staff in Buildings (Daily Average)

677

In addition, 395 students were administered the PSAT and

300 seniors were present in our stadium for a Senior Sunrise event

Number of students/staff sent home during the day with symptoms

5 students

Number of COVID confirmed cases
1 student

(diagnosed the week prior but we learned of it last week)

Athletics Reporting Over a 6 day period (HS & MS)

Athletics Reporting (Daily Average)

514 athletes/33 coaches (daily average)

Number of athletes/coaches sent home during the day with symptoms

9 athletes/0 coaches

(no symptoms were found to be COVID related)

State Transmission Rate (Average week prior)
1.15

https://www.nj.gov/health/cd/documents/topics/NCOV/COVID_19_Report_Week_41.pdf

Regional Positivity Rate (Central East)

3.82

https://www.nj.gov/health/cd/documents/topics/NCOV/COVID_19_Report_Week_41.pdf

Regional Case Rate (Central East)/100,000 residents

9.17

https://www.nj.gov/health/cd/documents/topics/NCOV/COVID_19_Report_Week_41.pdf

Statewide School Outbreaks/Middlesex County
(the State uses the term "outbreak"when a minimum of two cases independent of each other are in a school)

22 statewide/0 Middlesex County

https://www.nj.gov/health/cd/topics/covid2019_dashboard.shtml

What guidance exists at this time.

• Resumption of indoor sports.
• Indoor dining allowed 25% capacity, Capacity limits still in place, Fall athletics in operation, all mask and social distancing requirements still in effect
• COVID Alert NJ is NJ's free and secure mobile app that anonymously alerts users if they have been in close contact with someone who has tested positive.
• Governor Murphy gave rules and guidance regarding Halloween. (Click here)

• Point Pleasant Boro HS paused girls soccer team due to positive cases.

Self-reflection effectiveness rating (1-4)

3 +

Effective Rating Rubric

Incidents of student or parent non-compliance

2 students

One student came to school with fever

One student tested positive in delayed notification to school, but did not attend school.