TO DO:

Our district has a supply of PPE, specifically masks and gloves, available for you to request. You should have enough RSSL-approved PPE to provide for every staff member in your building that is needing it. Many of you have already accessed this and have adequate supply on hand. If you haven’t yet, please work with your Office Manager to request what you need. _________________________________________________________________________________

If you haven’t lately, you might want to take a look at the Willamette ESD Reopening Metric Dashboard. I like the new look. (Make sure you select Deschutes Co. if it isn’t already set there for you.) _________________________________________________________________________________

If you haven’t made a plan for this yet, you may want to begin thinking about what schedule of classes you want students to follow during their one orientation day during the week of Feb. 1. Because it is the end of the semester, student schedules will still show classes they are currently enrolled in. If you’d like students (particularly your 6th graders) to attend their second semester classes (because they may not know where they are all located), then know that these will not be the courses appearing in Synergy during that week. ________________________________________________________________________________

You might consider taking another glance at our Supervisor’s Guidelines one more time. This is a document meant to help you think through your responsibilities at school related to Covid-related requirements and safety. You’ve seen it before, but it may be helpful to review it again so these are fresh on your mind.

THIS and THAT:

I wanted to use a bit of my blog space this week to thank you all for the honest and open conversations that you participated in this past Wednesday afternoon. (Obviously, I was only in one of the two MS groups – but I know you well enough to safely assume similar conversations were happening in both spaces.) We don’t spend enough time talking with each other. We spend even less time talking with each other about what it means to be a leader of equity. I really appreciate those in the group I’m with who shared their struggles, passions, hopes, and personal stories around how to be a person who sees and acts on the behalf of others (especially those that don’t look like or have similar experiences to you/us). One thing that I have really appreciated about these PD opportunities has been the time for listening, talking, and challenging one another. Thank you for being a partner in this journey to becoming a better person and leader – as well as a voice for those who do not share the same privilege we enjoy. ________________________________________________________________________________

Here are the most recent numbers regarding where MS students will be engaged in school for semester two: We have a response from 78% of our total MS population. Of those that have responded, 2,775 have indicated they will be in Hybrid. For BLPO there are 216, and for district CDL there are 222. (There are roughly 70 students per grade level that have selected district CDL.) _________________________________________________________________________________

Following are a few updates from Tami Pike:

Just wanted to give you all a “heads up” that with the increased number of staff set to be receiving their COVID vaccinations over the next few weeks, there will more than likely be an increased number of staff calling out sick (especially with the second dose). If individuals complain of COVID symptoms (even if it may be from the vaccine), we will still be following our exclusion guidelines for COVID symptoms. This means that a staff person could potentially be out for 10 days or be tested for COVID. If the result is negative, the employee could return to in-person work when they receive a signed Return-to-Work Form from their medical provider and symptoms have improved or resolved.  *I am very short on nursing substitute coverage. If one or more of our nurses is out due to COVID symptoms, school staff will need to step up and provide direct student care (including isolation room support). *Please continue to complete the staff absence report form for any staff that are out due to COVID illness symptoms so that one of our district nurses can follow up and provide further guidance. 

Quarantine time has changed from 14-days to 10-days when an individual has been exposed to a positive COVID-19 case. 

For students who are unable to wear a mask (due to a disability and/or medical condition), precautions need to be taken for the student to safely be in the general education classroom. For example,  students who cannot wear a mask should have an area designated in the classroom specifically for their desk (such as the back of the classroom, near a window, with plexiglass surrounding their desk). Extra precautions should be taken to ensure that the student remains clear of other students while waiting in line to go out to recess, bathroom, etc. 

Notification of a positive COVID-19 case (in a school building) will be sent out to parents and school staff within 24 hours of case confirmation. Separate communication will be sent to parents in cohorts affected by the case. Information in this communication will include quarantine instructions (if warranted).

Attendance Voice Mail MessagingTo help track illnesses, we are encouraging schools to add the following to their attendance phone line recordings:
“To help with illness tracking in our schools, please include any illness symptoms your student has when reporting your student absence.”
Nurses have been receiving some push back from school offices who do not want to change their current attendance recordings. If we could have (at least some) parents indicate what their student symptoms are, this would help reduce the number of calls our nurses would have to make to parents regarding why their students were out. If a student is out due to tooth pain or broken bone,  a nurse would not need to make a phone call to that parent because they would have indicated the reason/symptom (hopefully). It will save time!!

Ordering KN95/N95/Medical grade masks for your school staff may not be a good idea. 

1. On average, staff will need 5 masks per month. Are you prepared to continue to replenish these supplies on regular, monthly basis? We are not sure how long this pandemic will continue. What happens if PPE supplies nationwide run low (which some supplies already are) and masks aren’t available? Staff will be upset and fear that they are not adequately protected when the CDC and RSSL Guidelines did not indicate that masks were needed for all staff to begin with?
2. Can you guarantee that these KN95 masks are FDA approved medical grade masks? _________________________________________________________________________________

Here is a link to the most up-to-date spreadsheet regarding your building spaces square footage. Gyms have been added to this list for sure, as well as some possible other smaller spaces that were missed previously. _________________________________________________________________________________

This is likely not new information regarding locking/unlocking of doors at your school, but hopefully serves as a confirmation!

Front entry doors should remain unlocked during the school day for students to enter. Please keep your lobby doors locked leading into the school, and only open them to allow students or staff to enter the school.

Please ensure all your other exterior doors remain closed and locked unless being physically supervised by staff to allow students to enter or exit. Once the staff member leaves the exterior doorway, the door should be locked and closed. ________________________________________________________________________________

We had a meeting yesterday afternoon regarding whether (and if “yes,” how) to take attendance daily on all of our students during Hybrid instruction. We didn’t leave with an answer. Katie will be talking with Lora about the options we discussed and I hope to have a final answer for you by our meeting on Tuesday.

REMINDERS:

You are well aware that these next two weeks are designated as asynchronous teaching/learning. As a reminder, here is the document Dean worked on with a smattering of MS teachers to provide guidance for these two weeks (Jan. 25 – Feb. 4). _________________________________________________________________________________

When students return beginning on Feb. 8 (this is still the plan as far as I know… but I’m not putting any money down yet to say for sure it will stay with this date), here is the document that Dean and his team of MS teachers worked on regarding guidance around Hybrid asynchronous teaching/learning. The highlighted sentences in this document are a placeholder for what has not been decided yet. Please DO NOT share this attendance language with your staff yet. Again, I hope to a final answer fo you by Tuesday afternoon. ________________________________________________________________________________

MS Horizontal next Tuesday at 2:00. Here is a link to the draft agenda. (You’ll be able to find any updates also with this link.). ________________________________________________________________________________

Next Tuesday is a MAC Survey day.