Please let me extend my sincere gratitude to each of you for your patience and flexibility in recent weeks. Our entire education system is under intense pressure and strain, and there are no easy solutions to the challenges we face.

FUSD strives to be nimble and responsive as conditions and guidance changes, and have outlined updates below. We understand that new practices can complicate our routines and disrupt expectations, and we appreciate your patience and best effort to stay up-to-date with requirements. I encourage each of us to approach one another with empathy and the assumption that we are all doing our best.

The Omicron surge is adding stress and strain to our system, to the personal and professional obligations of our staff and families. The apprehension, anxiety, and concern some may be experiencing in the face of this surge and associated impacts on all of us in education may bring forward many of the same emotions from March 2020, when we didn’t know what lay ahead of us, and what we could do to protect ourselves and others.

However, there are key differences between today and those early days of the pandemic. We are better prepared to limit transmission in our community and classrooms than when we transitioned to distance learning. We have better tools at our disposal, with access to vaccines and testing, and improved air filtration and more targeted cleaning routines.

The Governor recently issued an Executive Order providing flexibility over the next few months for schools to hire additional staff. We would love our community’s support in meeting the staffing needs of our schools. If you have a Bachelor's Degree and would like to help support our students as a substitute teacher, you can now apply online right away.

If you’d like to help us in another capacity, we’d love to have you join FUSD as a classified employee or substitute, please apply now to help our students, our community and our schools.

We will move forward the best we can, as a school community. Our collective actions and actions at the individual level determine the impact of COVID in our schools throughout this school year.

Thank you for your continued support as we share the responsibility of keeping students and staff safe.

The student COVID-19 screening is updated, as is the flowchart (English | Spanish | Chinese) for students who test positive for COVID-19 or have a close contact exposure.

We will continue to notify staff, students and families of changes to any of our protocols.

Over the past week alone, we’ve seen dynamic and frequent changes in the guidance for isolation and quarantine of both staff and students. There has not been significant changes in the day-to-day operational guidance.

In FUSD we’ve implemented the following protocols and they will remain in place:

• Daily student COVID-19 screening or self-check for staff before entering campus

• Face coverings remain mandatory at school facilities/campuses.

• Please support students to consistently use a well-fitting mask. FUSD is continuing to supply all sites with disposable surgical masks for use by staff or students who do not have a proper face covering.

• PCR testing for students and staff is available weekly at each school site, and available at the District Office every school day

• Air purification units in all classrooms and auxiliary rooms - filters are on hand in the process of being replaced

• Weekly testing for student athletes per ACPH/CDPH guidance

• Contact tracing and case reporting

• Reporting cases to staff and community