School-Wide Health & Safety Plan
Hawthorn Elementary
Parents and Guardians:
Our number one priority is the health and safety of our students and staff. We have worked many hours to create a plan to safely welcome our students and staff back to Hawthorn. Please keep in mind that our plan could change as we receive additional information and guidance from public health officials. We will notify you if we make changes. We have created guidelines for how we will apply the five pillars of infection prevention at Hawthorn including hand-washing, physical distancing, stable groups, masks, and cleaning and disinfection. Thank you for your patience and flexibility as we navigate this school year together.
Health Guidelines for Students and Staff
- Fever
- Cough
- Rash
- Sore throat
- Shortness of breath
- Diarrhea
- Nausea or vomiting
- Fatigue
- Headache
- Muscle pain
- Lack of appetite
- Loss of taste of smell
EXPOSURE TO COVID-19: If students or staff members feel healthy but have recently had close contact with a person with COVID-19, they need to stay home and monitor their health until 14 days after their last exposure. Families should notify their child's principal, and staff should notify their supervisors of the exposure.
HEALTH ROOM AND QUARANTINE SPACE: Our school nurse will use all of the recommended health guidelines if a child is sent to the health room with Covid-19 symptoms. The following is a list of extra precautions we have in place for the health room.
- frequent hand washing, use of hand sanitizer, gloves
- visitors will wash their hands upon entering and exiting the health room
- masks will be worn by our nurse, students, and staff
- proper PPE will be worn based on the individual's health needs
- cots, chairs, and other surfaces will be cleaned and disinfected between staff/student visits and throughout the day as needed
- custodial staff will clean and disinfect as part of their regular cleaning routine
- a designated quarantine space has been established for students/staff who may have Covid-19 symptoms
Basic Building Procedures
VISITORS ARE NOT PERMITTED: For the safety of our students and staff, visitors will not be allowed in the building. Only school district employees are allowed to enter Hawthorn Elementary. Unfortunately this means no lunch or classroom visitors-even on the first day of school.
BREAKFAST PROCEDURES: Students who choose to have breakfast will go directly to the cafeteria upon entering the building. Students will be offered a grab and go breakfast. After receiving their breakfast, students will walk to their assigned classroom. Students will wash their hands and eat their breakfast in the classroom as they complete their morning work and classroom routines.
SPECIAL EVENTS: For now, all evening events, assemblies, music performances, field trips, etc. are cancelled. An update regarding after school clubs will be sent as soon as we have updated information. We cannot distribute any outside food or beverages to our students. This means we will not have birthday treats from outside the school. If families or teachers would like to purchase birthday treats for their students, please work through our Nutrition Services Department.
Hand-Washing
- Classrooms: Students will wash hands and/or use hand sanitizer throughout the day. All classrooms will have hand sanitizer available.
- Resource Rooms: Students will be expected to clean their hands upon entering and exiting all resource/intervention rooms.
- Restrooms: Signs reminding students of the correct way to wash their hands are posted.
- Cafeteria: Students will wash hands and/or use hand sanitizer as they enter the cafeteria.
- Health Room: Visitors to the health room will hand sanitize upon entering and exiting.
- Recess: Students will wash hands and/or hand sanitize before and after each recess.
- Specials Classes: Students hand sanitize upon entering and exiting each specials area.
Physical Distancing
- Classrooms: Desks will be arranged in rows and spaced out as much as possible. Sit spots will be used on the floor for gathering time to mark where students should sit. Plexiglass dividers will be placed on tables to separate students.
- Resource Rooms: The number of students allowed in the resource rooms will be limited and students will be spread out as much as possible. Plexiglass dividers will be used on tables to separate students.
- Restrooms: Students will be limited to two in the restroom at one time.
- Cafeteria: Students will be seated six to each table, with no students directly next to or across from each other. "Husky Spots" will be utilized to designate safe spacing. The schedule is being altered so that there is adequate time to sanitize the tables and benches between classes. The stage will be used for additional seating.
- Health Room: Students/visitors to the health room will be spaced out at least 6 feet apart.
- Recess: Classes will be assigned to one of three specific zones for each recess.
- Specials Classes: Students will participate in activities that allow for proper social distancing.
Cleaning and Disinfection
- Classrooms: Custodians will clean & sanitize surfaces at least once per day. Devices will be disinfected daily. Wipes and disinfectant will be available in each classroom and teachers will use as needed throughout the day to maintain a safe environment.
- Resource Rooms: Teachers will have separate supplies for each student. For any "community supplies" the teacher will separate "clean" and "used" supplies. Supplies will not be reused until they have been properly sanitized. Work spaces will be sanitized after each group.
- Restrooms: Custodial staff will clean surfaces, as needed, throughout the day.
- Cafeteria: Custodian and lunch supervisors will use disinfectant on tables and benches between each group of students.
- Health Room: Surfaces will be disinfected after the care of each student.
- Recess: Equipment, including balls, will be disinfected by recess supervisors between use.
- Specials Classes: Equipment, instruments, and other materials will be cleaned after each use. For any "community supplies" the teacher will separate "clean" and "used" supplies. Supplies/equipment will not be reused until they have been properly sanitized. Work spaces will be sanitized after each group.
Stable Groups
- Classrooms: Students will stay with their assigned class throughout the day. The only students that will come/go will be students attending class in a resource room.
- Resource Rooms: Resource teachers will minimize pulling students from different classes at the same time. If students from different classrooms need to attend the same small group, they will be expected to follow all guidelines for social distancing and hand hygiene. Students will wear masks 100% of the time they are in the resource/intervention rooms.
- Restrooms: Students will only use the bathroom located in their pod to limit exposure.
- Cafeteria: Students will be assigned to tables based on their class assignments and will not be permitted to move around the cafeteria. If students need items (napkins, forks, etc.) supervisors will bring the items to students.
- Health Room: N/A
- Recess: Cohorts of students will be assigned to zones where they will be expected to remain for the duration of their recess period. Zones will rotate weekly to provide options for students.
- Specials Classes: Only one class will be permitted in the specials classroom at a time.
Masks
- Classrooms: Masks will be worn by students and staff at all times.
- Resource Rooms: Masks will be required when students are in resource/intervention classrooms unless the teacher needs to see the students' mouth to provide instruction. In these situations, a clear mask is preferred or the plexiglass divider will be used.
- Restrooms: Face masks will be worn in the restrooms.
- Cafeteria: Face masks will be worn when entering and leaving the cafeteria. Once students are seated, masks will be removed.
- Health Room: Anyone who enters the health room is required to wear a mask.
- Recess: Face masks will be worn during recess.
- Specials Classes: Face masks will be worn by students and staff at all times.
A Few More Things...
- Please send a reusable water bottle to school with your child.
- Please talk with your child about the importance of wearing a mask and have your child practice wearing a mask for longer periods of time.
- Please be patient with us as we navigate through a very different school year.
- Please contact us if you have questions or if your child is struggling.
- If your student is directly exposed to someone with COVID, the school nurse will contact you. No news is good news!
- To keep students healthy, it is suggested that masks are washed daily.
- For more detailed information. Please refer to the Health and Safety Precautions on our district website: HEALTH AND SAFETY PRECAUTIONS