Hello Rangers!
Last night the school board approved the recommended changes to the reopening plan that the Reopening Team put forward. These changes will take effect the Monday after the Thanksgiving break. For next week (Nov 9-13), we will stay in Step 4, and I will send another update next week as well.
Dr. Locke did not have many updates in our conversation this week; we have reached something of a plateau in Jefferson County. We are starting to see an uptick in the number of cases in the county, Dr. Locke says that these are still coming from out of the county and there still is no evidence of community spread. He also related data about outbreaks in schools. There have been 46 as of Tuesday across the state. These are called "outbreaks" when two or more people test positive for COVID in the school but are not considered to be close contacts with each other. In all of the 46 instances, contact tracing shows that the infections happened when the infected person was not in school. When there are positive cases in schools, they don't spread through the school, and the origination is from outside of the school. This is more evidence that schools are safe and healthy places for students and staff, particularly when we adhere to the safety protocols built into our reopening plan.
To ensure that you are aware of the coming changes to our learning plan, this is what the board approved last night, to start on Monday, November 30th:
- School will start 10 minutes later than our current start time. Buses will pick up students 10 minutes later than we have been, and arrive at school at 8:20 instead of 8:10. If you are bringing your students to school, please do not arrive before 8:20 - we will begin the health screenings at that time.
- Kindergarten will add another day to their week; Starting Monday, November 30th they will come to school Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday
- Grades 1-5 continue in-person learning on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays. Over time, we will add more grade levels to a four-day-per-week schedule as we are able.
- Grades 6-12: Each grade split into cohorts “A” and “B”. Cohort A at school on Monday and Tuesday, cohort B in school on Thursday and Friday. Cohorts will be reorganized to ensure equity. The new groups will be determined in the next week or so - you should hear from your child's teacher or the school office of any changes for your child.
- This new plan will be our default learning modality, unless or until Jefferson County Risk Level reaches “high” (>75 cases per 100,000 residents over the past two weeks) - per DOH guidelines.
- Other factors that may cause us to move to a more remote learning mode: Jefferson County Public Health (JCPH) recommends a change, evidence of community transmission in Quilcene, testing positivity rate > 2%, or high-risk levels in Kitsap or Clallam counties.
- If conditions warrant, and in cooperation with JCPH, Quilcene will return to remote learning until the risk reduces to the moderate level.
I use a couple of sources to check on the number of cases in our county - the WA Risk assessment dashboard, and the JCPH Facebook page.
As always, if you have any questions about these changes, or how we are keeping students and staff safe and healthy at school, or anything else school-related please do not hesitate to contact me!
Thank you for all that you do to support our students and staff!
Frank Redmon
Superintendent