Getting kids back in school safely requires using layers of mitigation strategies to effectively disrupt COVID transmission. The most important and significant strategy is the vaccine. Vaccine preventable infectious diseases become controllable when the general population achieve a level of immunity to the disease. Grade school children at this time are not able to receive the vaccine. It is up to the adults to decide whether to contribute to our collective goal of herd immunity by vaccination.

COVID-19 transmits easily from an infected person to others before there are obvious signs and symptoms of illness. It can take anywhere from 2-14 days from the time a person exposed to COVID may develop signs or symptoms if that exposure lead to an infection. For these two reasons, COVID-19 has proven to be a very challenging infection to keep out of community settings including schools.

The CDC recommends adding screening tests for COVID in communities with moderate to high transmission and low vaccination coverage. Screen testing will allow schools to identify people with COVID without symptoms so they can stay home from school thereby increasing school safety.

Haleiwa Elementary is partnering with Color Health to offer our school staff and students the opportunity to get tested every week at school with no out of pocket cost. The program uses the Perkin-Elmer RT-PCR test: a very sensitive test for detecting the COVID virus. The sample is collected using a dry swab that goes into the inside, front part of the nose for less than 1 inch. The test sample is gently collected as the test participant performs the test on themselves supervised by a trained observer.

We welcome staff and students who are interested in participating in our school-based COVID testing program to help keep our school safe and healthy. For more information, click this link: COLOR

More information on how you can pre-register your child for COVID screening on campus coming soon!

According to Tracy Brower, a contributing editor to Forbes Magazine in an article dated January 3, 2021, "Gratitude is Good". When you practice gratitude on a daily basis, among other things it can help you:

Be more joyful. Gratitude tends to focus you on what you have and not what you might be lacking. And since you can't feel both thankful and unhappy at the same time, when you're thankful you're more likely to feel joy. Additionally, being grateful helps you to focus on now--appreciating the present--and thereby reducing stress or anxiety about the future.

Foster relationships. A study at the University of New South Wales found that when people express appreciation, others believe that they can form a constructive relationship with them, and tend to invest and contribute to connecting. "Together is better" is a saying that we've often heard during this stressful time. Expressing gratitude tends to spread positive feelings towards each other, which in turn may effect an entire community.

To build your gratitude muscle, Tracy Brower recommends the following:

• Begin and end with intention. Start each day by thinking about all you appreciate and expect from the day, and before you turn out the lights at the end of each day.
• Give continuous attention. Throughout each day, find small things about which you can be thankful...Avoid taking things for granted. Make everything count and bring conscious attention to the things that make you glad.
• Be expansive. Ensure you're focusing on being grateful not just for things, but for people and conditions.
• Write it down. Research has shown that when you do that, it can foster happiness and wellbeing.
• Express yourself. Gratitude is both an individual and team sport. When you share what you're grateful for in a team environment, it holds even more power. Thank a coworker during a team meeting or provide positive feedback to a colleague during a project session. When gratitude is expressed and shared, it helps both you and the group.

Gratitude is good, and it has plenty of positive effects. It may also be what can help get us through the last miles of the pandemic marathon. Staying present, being attentive of others and appreciating all we have--just as we wait for all we want--can help us get to the finish line.

It is our hope that you will practice "Gratitude" and thereby "Choose Love" during this pandemic. "Together we can make a difference"!

Click on the button below to read Tracy Brower's article in its entirety.