Dear students, staff, families and community,
Over the last few weeks we have been trying to keep you up to date with the COVID situation, and how you can assist us in keeping our schools open for in-person learning. With recent closures of classrooms and schools in our county it is a reminder how things could change quickly for us as well. We do not want this to happen for any students or school systems in our area, and we continue to work with the health department to ensure we are doing everything we can to mitigate the spread.
The definition currently in use to define an outbreak in the school setting that could lead to classroom, school or district wide closures is as follows:
multiple cases comprising at least 10% of students, teachers, or staff, within a specified core group*
At least three (3) cases within a specified core group* meeting criteria for a probable or confirmed school-associated COVID-19 case with symptom onset or positive test result within 14 days of each other; who were not identified as close contacts of each other in another setting (i.e. household) outside of the school setting; AND epidemiologically linked in the school setting or a school-sanctioned extracurricular activity.
*A “core group” includes but is not limited to extracurricular activity, cohort group, classroom before/after school care, etc.
This is important for many reasons, one of which is the district’s ability to identify links to cases and potential areas of concern in a timely manner. To do this requires cooperation and good communication from families. When cases arise that have no known exposure to COVID outside of school, the Health Department is left to consider that school is where the spread occurred. If families do not share accurate and timely information with us it could impact our ability to stay open. We are working on a new system to communicate with families by email regarding absences, with the ability to complete an online form to provide the necessary information. We hope it will help all of us with the process of contact tracing. Please take a moment to make sure your email address is current in Skyward Family Access, and contact your student’s school if you need assistance. In the event that you have not responded or we have incomplete information your student will be excluded from school until we can attain the details of the situation and determine if they should be in the school building.
Timely testing is another area that can impact in-person learning. The Blaine School District offers students who are identified as close contacts in a school setting, and are without symptoms, the opportunity to participate in COVID testing at school (with parental permission). The testing must be done at the school twice in the first 7 days after exposure in order to remain in learning. The Test to Stay allows for in-person learning during a modified quarantine, but the student is expected to quarantine themselves from other activities, such as extracurriculars.
You may hear a statement similar to, “ Testing is what is driving COVID numbers up,” as a reason not to participate in testing. This is the exact opposite of what we are experiencing in schools. For example, if, in the same classroom, four students are absent from school with symptoms and One tests positive for COVID, student Two tests negative (by PCR) for COVID and the other two students remain home with symptoms, but do not test, a determination of presumed positive will be made for the two untested students. (Presumed positive = exposure + symptoms) In that scenario, the classroom could be closed down for having 3 or more positive or presumed positive cases in a core group (explained above.) If students Three and Four had tested and one of them had been negative, the classroom would have remained open. We have seen several examples of whole core groups not being sent home to quarantine due to either negative tests or helpful contract tracing interviews that have revealed an out of school link to COVID (for example, an exposure at a birthday party, sporting event, or other gathering not related to school.) I want to reassure you that COVID testing is helping keep our schools open.
I would now like to move to a topic of concern, not related to COVID, that is an opportunity for families to have open dialog about behavior and social media. There is currently a viral TikTok Challenge that encourages students to commit different acts while at school, and we have seen this inappropriate behavior. In September we saw a huge increase in bathroom vandalism as a result of the challenge. The challenge for October is to “Smack a Staff Member”. These actions are unacceptable behavior and will be dealt with accordingly should they occur. In an effort to work together with our families, and be proactive rather than reactive, we are asking you to please have conversations with your student(s) around acceptable school behavior and report any concerns immediately to a campus administrator.
It is a great night to be a Borderite, and, as always, a great night to be your superintendent.
Sincerely,
Dr. Christopher Granger
Every Student. Every Day. In a New Way.