board workshop

Board Workshop

September 13, 2021

Mitigating

StrategiesCleaning &

Maintaining Healthy

Facilities

• Continue daily cleaning and disinfecting of classrooms and high-touch areas; Contract with outside company as needed

• Clean desks between class changes (last 5 min of class)

• Continue emphasis on limiting or removing non-essential items from classrooms

• Continue to provide and use hand sanitizer in all classrooms and have sanitizing stations available throughout all buildings

• Continue to encourage proper hand hygiene and respiratory etiquette

• Disinfect musical instruments and materials between classes; Limit sharing of materials

4

Mitigating

StrategiesMaintaining Healthy

Facilities

• Continue to stress social distancing especially in halls and during lunch

• Continue use of signage in halls/floors as visuals for directional traffic and social distancing

• Strongly recommend and encourage face coverings at all times in buildings especially during transitions

• Group students in cohorts whenever possible

• Limit class transitions to the extent possible

• Continue to utilize all staff during transitions to encourage one-way traffic and social distancing

5

Mitigating


Facilities

• Continue to have plexiglass available upon parent request

• Decrease continuous playing/singing time in

performance classes from 50 minutes to 30

minutes

• Continue to use bell covers in Band classes

• Continue to limit any non-essential visitors,

volunteers and activities involving external groups

or organizations

• Continue to offer virtual meeting options (e.g.,

faculty, staff development, IEPs, etc.)

• Continue to limit in-person extracurricular events

(performances, clubs after school, etc.) and

complete application for district approval 6

Mitigating


Facilities

• Use assigned seating and maintain updated seating

charts in classrooms for contact tracing

• Standardized and streamlined reporting and

notification process for contact tracing

• Arrange desks in rows with students facing forward

to provide as much spacing as possible between

students

• Arrange desks/chairs 3 ft apart in all classrooms to

the extent possible

• Use larger classrooms/areas for larger class sizes

• Have students report directly to classrooms during

beginning of day versus large holding areas

• Maintain practice of no field trips 7

Mitigating

StrategiesFacilities

• Finish installation of STAT air purifiers in all classrooms, offices, lunchrooms, multipurpose rooms and other “high usage” areas

• Continue daily flushing of facilities’ air filtration following ASHRAE guidelines

• Utilize bi-polar ionization units for improved ventilation

• Regular replacement of HVAC system air filters

• Update HVAC systems where needed

• Continue to use bottle filling stations

• Continue practice of not utilizing lockers at middle/high school level

8

Mitigating

StrategiesTransportation

• Mandatory face covering order on buses per SCDE

• Use additional time between elementary, middle and high school

routes to clean and sanitize buses as a result of revised bell

schedule

• Use assigned seating and maintain updated seating charts on

buses for contact tracing for regular routes

• Analyze routes to redistribute students where space is available

• Could include additional double routes

• Explore use of air purifiers on buses (Requires SCDE approval)

• Use windows/roof hatches to improve ventilation on buses

when weather permits

• Seeking the use of outside contractors to assist in providing

driver services when needed

• Encourage parents to drive students to school

• Compensate drivers driving double routes 9

Mitigating

StrategiesFood Services

• Increased touch point sanitation

• Continue to socially distance students as they move through serving lines

• Adjust lunch times as needed to allow for fewer students at a time in the

cafeteria

• Allow staff to transport prepackaged meals to designated pick-up points

or classrooms to minimize transitions

• Utilize classrooms, cafeteria, outdoor areas and other large spaces for

breakfast and lunch for socially distancing students to the extent possible

• Adjust seating configurations in the cafeteria to limit the number of

students per table/booth

• Continue use of tick sheets to minimize interactions and contact at point

of service

• Continue mandatory face coverings for all Sodexo staff

• Add additional kiosks at the high school level to allow for additional

spacing options for students

• Utilize Culinary Arts students to assist in the preparation of and/or

distribution of meals10

Mitigating

StrategiesPersonnel and

Staffing

• Continue to recruit permanent subs for all school

locations

• Utilize school-specific volunteers where possible

• Increased daily rate for substitutes ($90 for non-certified;

$120 for certified)

• Increased advertising efforts to recruit for all positions

• Exploring the development of a vaccination incentive

program for employees

• Seeking the use of an outside contractor to facilitate

COVID-19 testing for faculty and staff

• Seeking the use of an outside contractor to assist with

contact tracing

• Utilize high school students to assist with technology and

media concerns through work-based learning and

internships 11

Mitigating

StrategiesSpecial Education

• Continue to monitor the spread of the virus in classrooms with

students who have special needs

• Continue to offer a rigorous Extended School Year Program and

Speech Camp

• Continue to prioritize the individualized needs of self-contained

students

• Explore the school-by-school classroom model of service during

quarantine and/or temporary virtual relative to teacher, related

service providers and staff availability

• Monitor individual students’ IEP goals to determine which

students demonstrate a regression and need compensatory

services

• Offer compensatory services determined by an IEP team of

which the parents are an important member

12

Reduced Quarantine

Students

Quarantine 10 days• Requirements:

o Student must remain symptom-free from the time of

their exposure to the end of their 10-day quarantine

• Testing continues to be recommended; however, a negative

test will not release student from quarantine sooner than 10

days from exposure

• Students who develop symptoms during their quarantine

period (and have no alternate diagnosis) need to complete a

10-day isolation period from symptom onset*

*this applies to vaccinated and unvaccinated students

Staff

Quarantine 7 days• Testing requirements:

o Test must be completed no sooner than Day 5 from last

exposure

o PCR or Antigen testing is accepted (at home tests may

not be used)

o Documentation of negative test submitted to District

• Staff that remain asymptomatic, but are not tested, may

return after Day 10 from last exposure

• Staff members who develop symptoms during their

quarantine period (and have no alternate diagnosis) need to

complete a 10-day isolation period from symptom onset*

*this applies to vaccinated and unvaccinated staff members13

Reduced Quarantine

All individuals utilizing reduced quarantine options should also do the

following:

1. Continue symptom monitoring for duration of 14-day quarantine and remain home if

symptoms develop

2. Wear a mask while at work/school and any time social distancing cannot be maintained

3. Social distance from others to the fullest extent possible

Fully vaccinated individuals and individuals with documented COVID-19

infection in the last 90 days continue to be cleared from quarantine as long as they

remain asymptomatic. 14

District Snapshot

• 4 staff will still be quarantined using the reduced quarantine criteria when we return to in-person instruction Sept. 16th

• 326 students will still be quarantined using the reduced quarantine criteria

Quarantine return dates have been adjusted retroactively for all students and staff with a return date beyond September 16th

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Class Quarantine

• 15% or more of class enrollment (minimum of 3, maximum of 5)

of positive cases within a 14-day period for a class/cohort

• Secondary students do not travel in cohorts; therefore, identifying

entire classes to quarantine is difficult.

16

School QuarantineDHEC Guidance as of 9/7/2021

• Consideration may be given to quarantine a grade level or school:

• When a school is unable to maintain operations due to staffing issues

• When 30% or higher rate of absenteeism in the school/grade level is due to students in isolation

or quarantined because of COVID

• When 5-10% or higher of the student body is in isolation simultaneously after testing positive

• When discussed with and recommended by local medical and public healthcare professionals

based on the local healthcare capacity

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Communication

Plan

• Posted on district and school websites tonight

• Send all parents and staff via text and email link to

presentation

• Disseminate links via social media

• Send press release to media with updated information

this evening

• Post information on the revised quarantine protocols on

the COVID-19 section of the web page and

communicate to parents and staff

• Work with district staff and school administration to

include information through individual school

communication networks

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Board Request to ResearchMasked v. Unmasked Classes

board workshop

Documents