Transmission rates and positivity rates in our community are on the rise, and we are seeing much bigger impacts on our staff and students, with 12 cohorts alone going into quarantine in the past week. With these trends, we are at a critical point where we must make some immediate shifts in our learning models for families in an effort to slow the spread of the virus and reduce the spike in cases we are experiencing in our community.
Because of this, we will be shifting ALL students in all models to full remote learning beginning tomorrow, Wednesday, November 11, 2020, continuing through the winter break, which ends on January 4, 2021. Understanding the difficulties that this may create for families, the decision to move the entire district to remote instruction is a difficult one. We encourage you to think about how this will work for your family, perhaps identifying another family who has practiced the public health safety guidelines issued by our local health authorities, to reduce the burden and provide remote learning support for younger children.
Preschool is also canceled at this time through Thanksgiving break. The director and 9-R staff will consult with experts in the community and from CDPHE to evaluate the situation over the break, and additional decisions regarding the continuation of preschool will be made at that time.
If you travel during the upcoming holidays, we urge you to please follow all the precautions, including wearing your mask in public, limiting gatherings and mixing of households, watching your distance to others, and washing your hands frequently. We also encourage families to consider a quarantine upon return to the area and/or scheduling testing before returning to work or school.
San Juan Basin Public Health is urging all community members to increase their practice of the following critical public health precautions to prevent the spread of COVID-19 as we head into the winter holiday season:
- staying at home as much as possible, especially when feeling unwell for any reason,
- avoiding social gatherings with more than one household, especially indoors,
- encouraging employees to work from home whenever possible,
- practicing physical distancing (staying at least 6 feet away from another person),
- wearing face coverings when in public, as required,
- practicing good hygiene (washing hands, covering coughs and sneezes, etc.), and
- getting tested if you have symptoms or believe you’ve been exposed through a known contact or community interaction.
Please watch for additional information over the coming days from the district, your school and your teacher, around expectations for remote learning for your child next week. We thank you for your support and flexibility during these uncertain times. By continuing to work together I know we can change the curve in our community and begin conversations again about in-person learning.
Sincerely,
Dan Snowberger