I was prepared for a bunch of phone calls Tuesday when students arrived at buildings. However, the phone never rang. Nada. Nothing. Crickets. Now, I know there were little things that happened here and there, but overall things went pretty darn smooth. This is a direct result of all the hard work you and your staff did to prepare for bringing kids back to the building. Great job everyone!
Focus on Excellence and Equity…
I know our meeting on Wednesday was a difficult one to attend because we have all been focused on opening our schools. Believe me, I get it and I felt the same way. However, I appreciated Kinsey’s reminder of how important this work is and how we are always busy. Once we got started and the conversations starting flowing in our group I totally forgot how busy I was. So keep leaning into this work. It’s important and worth our time and effort.
Department News…
There’s lots of information from Nurse Tami and from in this week Departmental section. Please be sure to read it all carefully.
Quarantine Time Change – Quarantine time has changed from 14-days to 10-days when an individual has been exposed to a positive COVID-19 case.
COVID-19 Notification Process in Schools – 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. A 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 Messaging – To 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!!
Schools Wanting to Order KN95 Masks for Staff – Ordering KN95/N95/Medical grade masks for your school staff may not be a good idea.
- 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?
- Can you guarantee that these KN95 masks are FDA approved medical grade masks?
Continued education and staff reassurance for COVID safety is something we need to continue doing.
And even more from Nurse Tami – For students who cannot wear masks in the general education setting….
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 plexi glass 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.
2nd vaccination – Just 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).
FAN News from Dana – Our winter MAC survey day is Tuesday, January 26. Please coordinate with your FAN Advocate to deliver this message to staff.
Door Update from Scott Bojanowski – You can leave the front entry doors 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.
Updates, Reminders, Info and Rants…
Just a reminder – Please review the COVID-19 Informational Page found in the Staff Portal. Please pay particular attention to the information provided in the Supervisor guidelines document. These are the things that are your responsible for and that you must follow through with.
Learning Options update – Below are the stats for district wide for our learning option choices – School, BLPO, and CDL.
- Hiring for the CDL program will occur next week.
- Gap materials for students who selected CDL are being delivered to schools. You will need to contact the families in your CDL tab to have them pick up these packets.
- Please check the BLPO Tab in your Learning Options survey results and ensure that all the families have registered for BLPO or have been contacted about registering for BLPO.
District Level Subs update –
- We hired 16 subs. Hiring paperwork and process is being finalized this week.
- They need to go through a crash course district training after they are hired
- Target start date for them is Feb 8th
- The system for requesting and deploying the district subs is still TBD
- Currently if you have an immediate need go to ESD or call your level leader
Something to look at – 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.)
PPE Inventory – Our district has a supply of PPE, specifically masks, available for you to request. You should have enough RSSL-approved PPE to provide for every staff member in your building. 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.
Train Your Brain 2021 – This helmet safety program will be coming your way in April and May. The format will be different to accommodate covid restrictions. However, free helmets will still be available. More info later.
Park and Rec – Next week Team Up will only have the 4th and 5th grade students attending. Those Team Up students who are not attending their orientation day will still attend Team Up. It will also be when Kids Inc starts up. And then starting Feb 1st is when Team Up will be for the A-B cohort kids. Here are some topics to discuss with your Team Up and Kids Inc leaders:
- Daily Schedule – make sure they have a copy of it
- Entry and Exit procedures
- Lunch times and procedures
- Recess time, recess locations, recess expectations
- Restrooms
- Potential gym time during the day and on Wednesday
- Inclusion of Park and Rec staff on your building check-in form
Team Up and Kids Inc will be following our communication plan for any positive cases. If this happens they will contact the building admin and nurse and our notification process will kick in. FYI – Team Up will also be taking temps of their 4-5 students like they have been doing up until now. However, they will be doing this inside their classroom so the procedure is not visible to others.
Boys and Girls Club – See the recent email from Kim Crabtrrree with bus information and lists of kids
Calendar
- 1/25 – k-3 all in
- 1/25 packet pick up for k-3 students who chose district CDL
- 1/25 – 4th and 5th Orientation Week
- 1/26 – School Board meeting @ 5:30
- 2/1 – 4th and 5th hybrid start
- 2/1 – teacher goals
And Finally…
Senator Bernie Sanders visited Silver Rail during lunch. Did he happen to visit your school too?
