Weekly Update
Grizzly Gazette, 10/03/21
Principal's Message
I am very proud of the work our staff is doing with the challenges we are facing. I am very proud of our parents and guardians for understanding and supporting our work and the challenges we continue to face with COVID. We are truly a partnership, students, staff and parents. We are looking forward to the day when we can have our wonderful volunteers back in the building, assisting us with the task of educating our wonderful students. Take care.
Jeff
Dr. Rumbuagh's Family Message, 10-01-21
Hello Families,
It is hard to believe October is already here! This has been a challenging and rewarding start to the school year. We are hopeful that our schools may return to a more “normal” routine as we see COVID case rates slowly starting to decline in Snohomish County. Districts in our region meet weekly with the Department of Health to review current case rates, listen to medical experts and plan our next steps.
A recent outcome of these meetings was our ability to lower our standard quarantine period from 14 days to 10 days. This means, if your student(s) tests positive for COVID, or is a close contact to someone that tested positive for COVID, the quarantine period is now 10 days. Please connect with your school nurse if you have any questions about close contacts, tertiary contacts or have questions about your student(s) circumstances. Please see this infographic from the Department of Health that describes how we determine close contacts in schools.
Listening Sessions with the Superintendent
During Tuesday night’s virtual listening session, families had the opportunity to share celebrations and needs that they and their students are experiencing. 20 families joined in this one hour session; some of the topics that were discussed included:
- Ensuring schools provide adequate time for meals and snack
- Appreciation for school newsletters and Friday Family Messages
- Clarifying the amount of quarantine days and procedures
- Addressing class size and enrollment at Cedarhome Elementary School
Our team will use these topics as opportunities to improve our practices and procedures. We sincerely appreciate the time our families took in giving us feedback. Our next listening session will be on Tuesday, November 30, 2021. Please check the District Calendar for details.
Change in Days Required for Quarantine (additional detail)
At the guidance of both Snohomish and Island County health districts, we will be shortening our close contact quarantine period to 10 days. Beginning Monday, September 27, any student or staff member who is determined to be a close contact to someone who is COVID positive will need to be quarantined for 10 calendar days. As before, a quarantine restriction does not affect other family members who are not determined to be close contacts. Students and staff who are quarantined are expected to remain home, avoiding contact with anyone outside their household, during this 10-day period (e.g., extracurricular activities, etc.)
This decision was made, along with several other districts in our area, in order to return our staff and students back to school as quickly as possible without sacrificing safety. This move is being made with the guidance of our local health departments; it may be rescinded by local health departments, if circumstances dictate a change back to a more conservative timeline.
Finally, thank you for your patience and understanding as we navigate another unusual school year. We strive daily to ensure your children receive the best possible education. We know that safety protocols can be stressful for students and families, but we are committed to keeping COVID cases low, students and staff in school and learning a priority!
Thank you for your partnership in this important work.
District Health Update
Families,
We are constantly analyzing how we are handling our COVID response, and our district has made a couple of changes lately that we hope will enable us to keep more students in class, and return those who are out a little sooner.
First, it can appear that students are being singled out for quarantine when the rest of their class is not, but this is intentional. We have learned from our experience already this year that if our students sit in class, eat lunch, and have their specialist seating near the same group of students we can be much more specific in determining close contacts for any potential quarantine. We hope to be able to do more precise quarantines with smaller groups going forward.
Secondly, as you heard from the family message on Monday, we have been given the go-ahead by the Health District to decrease our quarantine times from 14 days to 10 days. This will allow us to have an in-person "pause" for those students and staff who were determined to be close contacts, and get them back a little more quickly.
Mary Hoffman
Stanwood Camano School District
Assistant Director of COVID-related Safety and Health Services
Counselors Corner
Please click on the link below to view Mrs. Bregar's latest installment of Counselor's Corner. This month we are focusing on the Character Strong trait of "Emapthy." Thank you.
Important Dates
October 15th- Inservice day. No School.
October 20th-The nation wide, "The Great Shake Out" earthquake drill @ 10:20.
October ?-Trunk and Treat. Date and time to be determined,
October 27th, 28th and 29th-Conferences. These are half-days with school ending @ 12:00. There is no late start on the 27th.