BULLDOG BRIEF
PERSONALIZED. INNOVATIVE. GLOBAL.
Update from Nurse Katie
I would like to thank you all for your diligence and cooperation in keeping your students home who are not feeling well, and having those with symptoms evaluated before returning to school. We recognize that this year is a challenging one for everyone, and we thank you for your assistance. With the weekend coming up, I wanted to send just a few reminders of things to keep in mind when school rolls back around on Monday.
1) Please check in with your child every morning BEFORE school. If they are not feeling well, please do not allow them to come to school. If they come to school and have two or more "low risk" symptoms (fever, headache, muscle/body aches, fatigue, sore throat, runny/stuffy nose, nausea/vomiting, diarrhea) or one "high risk" symptom (new cough, shortness of breath or difficulty breathing, new loss of taste or smell) of COVID as identified by the Iowa Department of Public Health, they will be sent home. They will then be required to have a medical evaluation and alternate diagnosis, in addition to improving/resolving symptoms for 24 hours, before returning to school. The guidance from the IDPH is very clear and leaves little room for judgment on the part of school staff as to when a student with symptoms must be sent home from school.
2) Please make sure your student has a face mask and water bottle every day for school. Our drinking fountains are only operational as bottle fillers, so if they do not have a water bottle they get very thirsty during the day.
3) If you are unsure of whether to send your student to school because they have mild symptoms, please keep them home and contact your pediatrician or family practitioner for guidance. Please do not contact the school as we cannot evaluate a student's symptoms over the telephone or by email. Our recommendation will be to keep them home and contact their doctor.
4). If you are being tested for COVID-19 because of symptoms, please consider keeping your students home from school until you receive your test results to minimize disruption for them and their classmates. Your child's principal will work with you to get them going on virtual learning so they can stay current with their classwork. If you or someone in your family receives a positive COVID result, please contact the school immediately.
We want to continue to have the option of full-time in-person learning, so we all need to do our part to keep our school as healthy as possible. Thank-you, in advance, for your understanding and cooperation. Have a great weekend!
Katie Hovda RN, BSN, MHA
VM School Nurse
Parent/Teacher Conferences
Livestream for Many Van Meter Events
We have partnered with NFHS to provide live streams of all of our home events that take place at the football field and in the north gym. The service requires either an annual or a monthly subscription. There are no game-specific options, however, with your subscription, you can watch the games live or on-demand. ALL events that take place in the north gym or at the football field/track stadium can be viewed, including the postseason.
We are aware of the issues with last week's stream. Those seem to have been fixed. If you are not satisfied with the service, contact NFHS and they may reimburse your subscription. Because we are using their cameras and they are operated through the internet and not by people, we are not able to adjust them ourselves. All support needs to come from them. More information is linked below.
Annual subscription cost is $69.99/ year
Monthly subscription cost is $10.99/month
There are multiple ways to stream the games for your viewing.
Once you purchase a subscription, you will have access to any event that takes place in the north gym or at the football stadium. You will also have access to events of other schools that use the NFHS network when we are on the road.
Active COVID-19 Cases Week of September 25
A few kids have been sent home with symptoms as well. Those students are allowed to return if they:
- receive a negative test result,
- see symptoms improve,
- and get a different diagnosis from a doctor.
Please do your part to keep us informed if you think your child has been exposed to COVID-19 outside of the school setting. Parents have been doing an awesome job of keeping kids home when they are sick. Keep it up!
We will continue to need your help in trying to keep the spread of COVID-19 limited. If in doubt, error on the side of keeping them home until we can help navigate the next steps with the Dallas County Health Department. Thanks!
On-Site, Hybrid, and Remote Learning Models
With that said, it is possible that at some point later this year, we will make a decision to move the district to either a hybrid or remote learning model for all students. We will use the state provided guidance on positivity rates of the county to help us make that decision, but the primary driver will be the number of positive cases we have in the building, grade level, or classroom. There are too many factors that impact the positivity rate for a county to have that be what we use when making that decision. We are most concerned about what is happening in our buildings and the number of students and staff that have been impacted.
Fortunately (knock on wood,) we have had a limited number of cases and students who have had to quarantine. That can change quickly. If it is determined that it is best of our district or building to go to a hybrid model of learning, our plan is for students PK-2 to continue to attend Monday-Thursday on-site in their normal routine as long as there is not an outbreak in those rooms. Our students in grades 3-12 would attend school in an A/B model on-site one day and online the next with both groups attending online only on Fridays. So for example, 1/2 of the 5th graders (group A) would have class on-site Monday and Wednesday and online Tuesday and Thursday while the other 1/2 (group B) would attend online Monday and Wednesday and on-site Tuesday and Thursday. All students PK-12 would attend online on Fridays.
We don't have a set figure per se on the number of positive cases it would take for us to move a hybrid model. There will be other factors to consider such as staff availability, overall attendance, and positivity rate of the county, plus what grade levels or classrooms are experiencing cases. We will do our best to make the decision in a timely manner, but it is possible a decision will need to be made quickly if community spread occurs.
If we get to a point that we don't believe we can function safely with any students in the building, we will move to a totally remote/online learning environment for up to two weeks at a time or until we believe the virus is more controlled.
We appreciate your flexibility and understanding as we navigate the pandemic. If you have questions, please contact Mr. Durflinger or the building principals.
Isolation, Quarantine and Contact Tracing- PLEASE READ!
To determine who has been in close contact with students/staff who contract COVID-19 and as a result who should quarantine, the district will work with the local health departments to do contact tracing. It is really important for those who test positive or who show symptoms and have been exposed to isolate for 10 days and until their symptoms have improved, but it is equally as important for them to accurately inform the district and the health department who they were in close contact (less than 6 feet more than 15 minutes) with two days prior to the positive test or when symptoms start. This district will work with students, teachers, and staff to determine close contacts for students while at school along with the student/parents to determine outside of school close contacts. The process of contact tracing takes a lot of time and is dependent upon the information given by teachers, parents, and those who test positive for COVID-19. The district or health department will contact all close contacts and those individuals are expected to quarantine for 14 days from the last know exposure date.
The last date of exposure is really important, especially when we are talking about younger students. If a parent contracts COVID-19, they should isolate for 10 days. Their children would need to quarantine for 14 days from the last date of exposure, so if the parent is unable to completely isolate from their children, the last date of exposure could be their 10th day of isolation. This means a student could miss the 10 days of school for the parent isolating, plus 14 days of quarantine if the last date of exposure is the 10th day of the parent's isolation. To make matters more challenging, it is possible that the child could contract COVID-19 on their last day of the quarantine, and then they would need to isolate for 10 more days. This would mean a student could be out of school for up to 34 days if a parent or someone in the household tests positive for COVID-19 and is unable to isolate from their children.
We inform you of this not to scare you, but to help you understand the importance of doing all you can do socially distance, etc. to limit your chances of getting COVID-19. However, if you do get it, please do all you can to isolate yourself from your children so they can get back to on-site learning as quickly as possible.
As a reminder, a negative test result for those considered a close contact (less than 6 feet for more than 15 minutes) still requires a 14-day quarantine if the close contact happened within 2 days of the positive COVID-19 individual's test.
For the district to be able to help slow down the spread of COVID-19 and to keep students and staff safe, we will need all individuals asked to isolate or quarantine to do so with fidelity. It is the only way for us to minimize the chances of community spread. With that said, just because someone lives in the same house as an individual who contracts COVID-19 doesn't mean they have been exposed. Exposure is dependent upon close contact and it is very possible for individuals in the same household to maintain distance from each other. As we do our contact tracing, know that we will do our best to ensure all who should quarantine are asked to do so, but we can only act upon the information we have been given. All of this information is confidential to the individuals and families involved, but we will continue to be as transparent as possible when informing the community about COVID-19.
Dallas County Department of Health FAQ. If you have questions you can call them at (515) 993-3750
Process for Evaluating Sick Students and Staff
Return to Learn FAQ and IDPH Guidelines
Fall Sports Guidelines and Expectations
In general:
- Maintain physical distance from other individuals not in your household
- Wear a mask when physical distancing isn't possible (we are considering requiring masks for certain events, so always be sure to have one with you.)
- No students under 9th grade allowed at events unless a sibling of a participant (they then must stay seated/or standing with a parent)
- Crowds will be limited and tickets will be presold online only
- Those sitting in the bleachers need to sit 2X2 in the designated areas to maintain appropriate physical distancing measures.
- If fans do not follow the guidelines, they may not be allowed to attend future events.
Be sure to click on the links below prior to attending a Van Meter event. We expect our fans to follow our guidelines at both home and road events.
Thanks for doing your part to allow our students to play the games they love!
Athletic Website and Schedules
Contact Us
Email: firstname.lastname@vmbulldogs.com
Website: www.vmbulldogs.com
Location: 520 1st Avenue, Van Meter, IA, USA
Phone: (515) 996-2221
Facebook: https://facebook.com/VanMeterSchools/
Twitter: @vanmeterschools