Hello Cardinals! We are finally back into the swing of things after our break. Last week and this week have been busy with many things, COVID being one of them. In an effort to be fully transparent, here is an overview of our attendance from the following week:
Thursday, January 6: 58 total absences; 8 COVID+ students; 15 quarantined students
Friday, January 7: 64 total absences; 8 COVID+ students; 13 quarantined students
Monday, January 10: 45 total absences; 11 COVID+ students; 17 quarantined students
Tuesday, January 11: 48 total absences; 11 COVID+ students; 18 quarantined students
Seeing these numbers may be a shock to the system but in comparison to what I'm seeing at other schools, they are pretty comparable to what others are experiencing. COVID continues to spread and cause disruptions to all learning environments.
The Together Again Committee (TAC) meets this week to discuss the updated CDC recommendations for COVID+ and close contact individuals. I could not be more thankful for what that committee continues to do for our school and students. I am not an infectious disease control doctor, I have zero semesters of experience in medical school, and I did not major in the validity or non-validity of mask-wearing in college. What I do know is that this virus keeps changing, as they do, and we are doing our very best to stay ahead of it and keep our kids healthy, safe, and continuing to learn.
The policies we put into place are our best effort to keep kids in school and safe. My priority continues to be the classrooms, student and staff health and safety, and in-person learning. Without a full-time nurse, all contact tracing has to be completed by Jen and myself. Most days this past week has been nothing but phone calls to parents and the Douglas County Health Department (DCHD). There are no clear-cut rules as each scenario warrants a fresh phone call to DCHD to walk through possible solutions. There is no threshold in place for how many kids must be out to close a classroom or a school. There is a lot of gray area.
That being said, I am asking for your continued grace and patience as we navigate this surge. Policies affect all of us, my family included. I have been quarantined (twice last year and once this year) and three of my kids have had COVID. Sitting out ten days is tough and a little bit frustrating and confusing. No policy is perfect, but we have to be consistent with everyone, regardless of how the symptoms affect us, how many basketball games we are missing, Operetta practices missed, etc. The policies are different everywhere: school to school, gym to gym, church to church, CDC to DCHD. Those differing policies no doubt causes some frustration.
On Wednesday, the TAC will be discussing the possibility of shortening the quarantine period for students and staff who are fully vaccinated. Since we are fully masked at all times, this could be an option for our community. If you would like to upload your child's vaccination card, you can do so below. If you would rather not or do not feel as though you need to share this information with us, we would assume your child is not fully vaccinated and would then follow the quarantine policy for non-vaccinated individuals. A reminder that just because the CDC recommends a certain guideline, that does not automatically mean our community will adopt that policy.
We will make it through this surge the only way we know how, together. Prayers for everyone as we keep each other safe and respond with grace and patience.
Yours in Christ,
Julia
