21-22 COVID Strategies letter to families - Loren Glasbrenner - 08-17-2021

Hello River Valley Parents and Guardians, On behalf of the River Valley School District Staff and School Board, I’d like to welcome you to the 2021-22 school year!

We hope that you and your family have had a wonderful summer.

The reason we are sending this message out today is to let you know what our COVID-19 mitigation measures will be for this school year. This is more than a “Back To School” document. This letter is to help explain our district's measures to keep students in school.

The attached document includes a phased approach that we plan on utilizing throughout the year. In a recent meeting with the Wisconsin Department of Health Services, they used a comparison we are all familiar with...layering up for winter.

As we all know, as it gets colder, we use more layers to protect us from the cold. Our approach this year is similar. As we get more cases in our schools, we will add layers of protection. The administrative team has deeply studied data, CDC, DHS, and DPI guidelines, county communication, and parent feedback. As many of you know, our local community spread in the area has been low all summer, but we have to be prepared in case there are spikes in cases. At this time, I’d like to go through each of the phases, as well as the layers of protection. I apologize for the length of the message, but we feel it is very important that everyone in our district gets the same detailed information.

The first thing I would like to explain are the phases. We have four phases--BLUE represents low transmission, YELLOW represents moderate transmission, ORANGE represents substantial transmission, and RED represents high transmission.

Our School Board approved this approach utilizing a set number of positive cases per day, per school. For example, if there are no reported cases, we will start the first day of school at the BLUE level at all three schools. But if within the first few days, let’s say our high school has multiple positive cases, we would notify students, staff and families that the following day, the River Valley High School would be switching from our BLUE phase to our YELLOW phase. Please refer to our district’s website for information and updates: https://www.rvschools.org/district/rvcovidupdates.cfm Next, we’d like to share with you the layers of protection. Just like we layer up with a t-shirt, sweatshirt, winter coat and hat in January, we have layers of protection that are recommended by the DPI and Wisconsin Department of Health Services.

1. Face coverings are recommended. This is a very sensitive subject for some people. We have heard from many people who are passionate about the district requiring face coverings for all, as well as those who believe that decisions regarding use of face masks should be made by parents and families. Our School Board and administration have spent many hours listening and studying data. As you can see from the phases chart, in our first two phases (BLUE and YELLOW), face coverings are recommended, but not required. At the ORANGE phase, face coverings are required when students and staff cannot maintain a social distance. And in the RED phase, face coverings are required at all times when indoors.

2. The second layer of protection is staying home when sick. This is imperative to our success. When one child has COVID-19 related symptoms, everyone in the household should become very vigilant until the symptomatic person is tested. Individuals who have been vaccinated and are asymptomatic may remain in school. If there is a negative test, all asymptomatic individuals can be in school. If you choose to not get your symptomatic child tested, the symptomatic child can return to school after the 10th day of symptoms. We understand this is a huge inconvenience for families. However, this is a layer of protection that is critical to us staying in our BLUE and YELLOW phases.

3. Another layer that we may use is strategic cohorting. Cohorting is trying to keep a particular group of students together and away from others. While our early phases do not use cohorting, as we get into ORANGE and RED, cohorting becomes more of a priority in the classroom and extra-curriculars. Last year, our elementary and middle school students cohorted most of the year and moved in and out of the rooms carefully with structured peer interaction. This resulted in fewer students missing class through quarantine, which is a practice we don’t want to use unless our local data forces us to.

4. On-site testing is an additional measure we are considering. This will require some logistics and will only be used with parent permission. From the school’s point of view, we appreciate this measure as it creates equitable access, as it comes at no cost for families.

5. The fifth layer of protection is changes to our physical environment. Examples include touchless appliances in restrooms and improvements to ventilation. We have also added several air-conditioning units to our high school and are continuing to monitor increased ventilation in our buildings.

6. The sixth layer of protection is vaccination. The River Valley School District does not require COVID-19 vaccinations. The CDC, WI DHS and Sauk, Richland, and Iowa County Health Departments each encourage all eligible persons to get vaccinations, yet we understand this is a family decision. Our local county health departments have stated that if we identify a student or staff member as a close contact but they have been vaccinated and are asymptomatic, they will not have to quarantine.

7. The seventh layer of protection is hand hygiene and respiratory etiquette. Put simply, this is teaching students the best way to wash their hands (for 20 seconds and with soap) as well as the proper way to cough (into their elbows).

8. The eighth layer of protection involves cleaning and disinfecting by our staff. This ranges from daily cleaning to periodic cleaning all the way to disinfecting every time there is a change of students. Our staff will continue using daily protocol in all spaces to keep our schools healthy and safe.

9. The ninth layer of protection is signage and communication. Again, as our phases increase, so too will our signage and communication about best ways to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Please read the emails from our schools and call our building front office personnel if you have any questions. Also, if you have health questions, our school nurses are willing and ready to help.

10. The tenth and final layer of protection is to follow guidelines on isolation. Our process indicates that symptomatic and ill students and staff must remain out of schools. However, if your student is sent to the office for symptom(s), our nursing team will initiate a process to help this student. A confidential investigation of close contacts and vaccination status will happen. Please be kind and understanding to the nursing team. They are our front line to help keep our schools open and your family healthy. Isolation measures are required for children who test positive or are symptomatic without testing.

We understand that we have community members, families, students and staff members who may feel we should be doing things differently. This is not a perfect plan--and to our knowledge, there is no perfect plan that everyone will agree on. We believe students need to be in school. We understand the difficulties and hardships that COVID has placed on many of our students, staff, and their families. The pandemic has taught us many things, and I am excited to welcome everyone back to school. Never has the old saying, “It takes a village to raise a child,” been more appropriate than now.

This plan will be revisited as necessary, based on data. Thank you all and we look forward to spending the 2021-22 school year with you!

All my best, Mr. Loren G. Glasbrenner, District Administrator LINKS: River Valley 2021-22 COVID Guidelines and Updates Presentation to the School Board (updated 8.16) Guidelines for the Prevention, Investigation, and Control of COVID-19 Outbreaks in K-12 Schools in Wisconsin