Thursday Flyer for October 15, 2020

Thursday Flyer 10.15.2020

Reopening Update:

As you've probably heard, Placer County moved into the 'Orange' level on Monday evening. As we've telegraphed the past few weeks, we've tied our educational delivery method (e.g. distance, hybrid or 5 day) to the COVID color level for our county. Check out the graph that I screen captured from the County's COVID stats website below (stats as of yesterday):

The stats that matter now for 'color' status are the 7 day positivity rate (1.9%) and 7 day average case rate (now 4.1%). While the positivity rate continues to decline (1.9% is actually in the 'yellow' category of below 2%), the average case rate is borderline (below 4% is the threshold for 'orange'; if the reporting date was today instead of Monday, Placer County would still be 'red').

During yesterday's meeting with Public Health, the 'good' news is that new Public Health Doctor Oldham expects our 'Test Positivity Rate' to stay down and 'probably' continue lowering. The 'bad' news is that with over 1000 people (and rising) being tested in the County daily now, he 'wouldn't be surprised' if our case rate stays in the lower end of the 'red' range (as we're in now).

To put this in context, for every 50 persons testing for COVID right now within the county, 1 is testing 'positive' and 49 are testing 'negative' (for a period 3 months ago, we were closer to 1 in 6 testing positive vs. 1 in 50). At 1000 tests per day, around 19 people are testing positive. To stay in 'Orange', we need 16 per day or less.

Dr. Oldham thinks it's a 'coin flip' whether or not we'll be orange or red in two weeks. I don't want to switch instructional delivery modes on a coin flip only to have to switch back. Thus, to give all of our families as much notice as possible:

a) we're going to extend hybrid through the weeks of 10/26, 11/2 and 11/9 to make sure the County actually stays 'Orange';

b) we are setting a tentative return to '5 day’ instruction for the week of 11/16; and

c) we are going to make the week of 11/16 a Minimum Day week with P-T Conferences in the afternoon (currently 3 of the days are scheduled as 'Minimum Days' for conferences)

During this three week extension of ‘hybrid’, we will continue to offer ‘During School’ care at the same times and rates for our families. Here is the link to the Before/During/Aftercare form for 10.26-11.13: https://c42096c6-2e4d-493d-bdff-126f872232dd.filesusr.com/ugd/4b8266_7567937a0c5a40cbb25042b0224a1dea.pdf (also available on the Before/Aftercare page on our website). Again, childcare will be available to any student who is physically at school that day.

We continue to appreciate everyone's flexibility and patience as we navigate through these unprecedented circumstances.

Sincerely,

Brent

P.S. - Please continue completing our DAILY symptom check before bringing your child to school. This is available here: https://c42096c6-2e4d-493d-bdff-126f872232dd.filesusr.com/ugd/4b8266_fb4006e5756b486680d8819f0d09d41f.pdf

Emergency Cards

If we do not have a current emergency card for your child(ren), your child will be bringing home a copy by tomorrow. Please review the information (making any updates neatly on the card itself), sign, and return it to school at your earliest convenience. When you are reviewing it check the medical information, and make sure there are current phone numbers for parents and at least one local emergency contact.

Medications

Don’t forget to have the appropriate paperwork filled out by you and signed by your child’s doctor along with the medications they might need while on campus. Medications should be in their original prescription container.

Join the Yearbook Committee

Earn all 40 of your parent volunteer hours in one fun job! Email mmcayb@gmail.com if you are interested in joining the yearbook committee.

Lincoln Library Tutoring

Our friends with the Lincoln Public Library are providing 1:1 tutoring/homework session help to students via Zoom. This is free to the public. They have (12) 30 minute sessions available a day, between the hours of 2:30-4:30, Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays. They know that a lot of our students used their Homework Center pre-COVID, and wanted to share this opportunity with our school community. Their program flyer for this is below. Their target age group is grades k-8 , but they can easily make exceptions for high school students as well.

Here is the link to the scheduling site for parents to schedule a session: https://libraryatlincoln.as.me/homeworkhelp