Amesbury Public Schools Update
From the Office of the Superintendent - January 21, 2022
Amesbury Public Schools
Email: bartlettc@amesburyma.gov
Website: schools.amesbury.gov
Location: 5 Highland Street, Amesbury, MA, USA
Phone: (978) 388-0507
Facebook: facebook.com/amesburyschools
Twitter: @amesburypublic1
Dear Amesbury Public School Families,
I hope that everyone is staying warm and safe these days! It sure is cold!
As you will see from the pictures at the end of this newsletter, it has been an exciting week! I had the opportunity to eat a fantastic lunch at CES with some pretty special second grade students and with Acting Chief Bailey. The Chief and I are making our rounds to the schools and sampling the lunches at each place while we spend some time with our fantastic students!
It was also very exciting to have two of the three oversized beams arrive at the work site. These beams are 65 feet long and were incredibly impressive. The first floor beam was installed yesterday and the other two will be installed next week. It is very exciting to see the building really come to life. We have also begun to meet regularly about the technology and the furniture, fixtures and equipment. So many choices!
We are working on our proposed budget for FY 2023. One of the School Committee’s requests was for us to do a zero based budget. This means that each principal started at zero and rebuilt their budget by only adding in the things they need. This has involved meeting with each principal and cost center manager to see what they have built and what additional requests they are hoping to include to support our students. At our March 7, 2022 School Committee meeting Director of Finance and Operations, Joan Liporto, and I will be making our initial budget presentation. As all of our School Committee meetings are, this meeting can be attended in person or virtually.
Finally, in other big news, we have decided to opt-in to DESE’s new testing program - At Home Antigen Testing. I have spent some time in the sections below trying to break down the information and to anticipate questions that people may have. In their informational document, DESE provides some statistics about the positivity rate in their testing programs.
“For example, the individual positivity rate in K-12 schools in the state’s pooled testing data reveal case rates significantly lower than the statewide positivity rate. Last week, despite elevated K-12 positivity, the estimated individual positivity rate was still only ~1/5 of the statewide positivity rate. On top of these much lower-than-average positivity rates, schools are one of the few types of settings in the state where individuals are tested on a regular basis. Data from our Test and Stay program are equally strong about school safety. Students and staff individually identified as asymptomatic close contacts and repeatedly tested in school 1 K-12 positivity source: CIC K-12 data from processing laboratories, published on a weekly basis on Thursdays 2 through the Test and Stay program test negative over 90% of the time. As of January 9, 503,312 Test and Stay tests had been conducted; 496,440 of them were negative (98.6%).”
For Amesbury Public Schools, the numbers are even better. As of yesterday morning, Thursday, January 20, 2022, our staff has administered 2,580 tests of which 91 were positive (3.5%). These numbers combine BOTH the symptomatic and Test and Stay numbers. When those numbers are further broken down by types of tests the numbers are as follows:
Total Test and Stay tests: 1849 Positive Test and Stay tests: 28 Percent positive: 1.5%
Total Symptomatic tests: 717 Positive Symptomatic tests: 63 Percent positive: 8.8%
We are excited at this next step! However, we realize that there will be questions and concerns about this change. Please reach out to your school nurses with those questions.
I sincerely look forward to the days when I can fill my newsletter with information and exciting news that does not contain COVID! Hopefully, we are getting closer to that!
As always, please feel free to reach out to me at elizabeth.mcandrews@amesburyma.org with any questions.
Take care,
Elizabeth McAndrews
Superintendent
Change to COVID Testing
Currently, Amesbury Public Schools uses two different testing programs for COVID-19. The first is symptomatic testing. If a student or staff member presents with symptoms during the school day, the school nurse will test the student or staff member (with a signed consent form) for COVID positivity. This WILL NOT change under the new program. In fact, we are REQUIRED to keep this in place. Our second COVID Testing Program is the Test and Stay Program. This is where we contact trace for students who have been close contacts of a positive case while in school or at a school sponsored event. This WILL change. In its place will be weekly AT HOME testing for both students and staff who opt-in to this program.
AT HOME testing is optional for both students and staff members. However, those who opt in will be expected to test EVERY Tuesday night, after the school day and school related events end. All positive tests will be reported to the school and the local Board of Health via this Positive Test Result Notification Form. The form will also be on the APS District website under the COVID 19 Channel.
In summary, we will continue symptomatic testing and replace Test and Stay with At Home Testing. DESE is stating that the tests for staff will arrive at some point next week and the tests for students will arrive the following week. We will need to determine the number of students in our schools whose families want them to participate in the weekly at home testing. Again, this is optional. We will provide a test kit every other week (we will work with principals to determine the best way to get these home) to the students who are participating. So that we can order the correct number of student tests, we are asking families to register using this Student Opt In Form. We will only be able to give tests to the families that have registered. Please take a moment to complete the Student Opt In Form.
What is the benefit of making this change?
There are huge benefits from making this change:
First, students who opt into this program will be tested weekly. Every APS student will have the option of testing each week.
By carefully considering the day of the week on which we test, Tuesday night, we have provided time for the incubation period from the weekend to have "kicked in" and will limit the number of school days a student "MUST" miss due to the required 5 days of isolation from date of test or onset of positive symptoms.
Second, this will likely dramatically increase the number of students who are testing as compared to the number of students in each building who are testing through the Test and Stay Program.
For example, the most students we have had at a time involved in Test and Stay is 36. This is not typical, but more in line with "a worst case scenario".
In that school, the enrollment is 375. 36 students represents approximately 10% of the student body. We fully anticipate that more than 10% of the students in this school will participate in the At Home Testing Program.
Therefore, with a larger number of students testing, we will catch more positive cases and reduce the potential exposure in school.
Third, the amount of time that students will miss from school from testing will be reduced.
Test and Stay takes place in school and requires the student to miss class time while waiting for the results of the test. While this is worth the time to keep students in school for the day, if that testing takes place outside of school, students will not have to miss class time.
Symptomatic testing will continue to result in students missing class time. There is no change in this area.
Fourth, it will allow nurses to resume more of their traditional duties as contact tracing will no longer be done by the schools.
Nurses are currently spending a significant amount of their day testing students, contact tracing, and communicating with families about being a close contact.
Nurses will be able to return a portion of their time each day to the non-COVID needs of our students. This will not only help the physical health of our students, but also their mental health.
Fifth, it will increase the time our students spend in the classroom and at school.
By shifting our focus to symptomatic students it will allow more of our students to stay in school by avoiding recurrent episodes of at home quarantine due to outside exposure. Many students have missed significant days of school due to outside of school exposures though have never contracted the virus.
As always, if your child is sick please keep them home.
When Will All of This Start?
- I submitted the survey to opt-in to this testing program this week.
- DESE says that kits for staff will arrive next week.
- Once the kits arrive and are distributed, we will begin the At Home Testing Program.
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For Students:
- DESE says that kits for students will arrive the week of January 31st.
- Once the kits arrive and are distributed, we will begin the At Home Testing Program.
What Will We Do Until the Test Kits are Distributed?
- We will continue with symptomatic testing as we are now.
- We will continue with Test and Stay and contact tracing until the At Home Testing Program begins.
What do I do if I have a positive result as part of the At Home Testing Program?
How do I opt in?
Staff Opt-In Form: please submit form even if you are not participating.
Upcoming COVID Vaccination Clinics
The Lower Merrimack Valley Regional Collaborative has added additional clinic dates to their clinic schedule. These will be held at the West Newbury Annex, 381 Main Street, on the following Mondays from 5 - 8:00 PM or later depending on the need:
- January 24, 2022
- January 31, 2022
All vaccines (Moderna, Pfizer, Pedi Pfizer, and Johnson & Johnson/Janssen) will be available to all eligible age groups, including 1st, 2nd & booster doses.
Note: individuals 12-17 year old’s are recommended to receive a booster shot 5 months after their initial Pfizer-BioNTech vaccination series.
Also, immunocompromised children aged 5-11 years old are now eligible to receive an additional Pfizer dose 28 days after their second shot.
Please register using the following link: https://home.color.com/vaccine/register/amesbury