Dear Parents,
We are pleased to have completed the soft rollout of our JKHA/RKYHS COVID-19 Surveillance Screening Protocol. We have now field-tested our procedures Division by Division in order to identify issues and make the necessary adjustments in advance of inaugurating our school-wide, twice-weekly screening, which is set to begin today. Everyone in the building - students, staff, faculty, and administrators will be part of our screening program.
We are pleased to let you know in our initial rollout of N3-12, that no positive pool samples were identified.
In general, we will not release negative results. In this situation, "no news is good news." If our process identifies a pool in which we believe someone is positive for Covid, we will share information on a timely basis to enable parents to make informed choices on behalf of their children. We will need to communicate in a manner designed to respect individual privacy concerns. The Administration is working on the details to achieve that balance.
It is critical to understand that our screening protocol is a population surveillance approach, not an individual clinical diagnostic test. Our goal is outbreak control - to prevent or reduce the likelihood of a school-based outbreak. If you have health concerns, If you have health concerns, individuals are advised to seek medical advice from their health care professionals.
A negative result in our screening is not meant to "clear" anyone or declare any individual "COVID-free." Testing is important and positions us to identify and exclude potential exposures. However, it remains critical that everyone continues to be vigilant about wearing masks, physical/social distancing, hand hygiene, and other mitigations against transmission.
With the holidays coming up, and the reality of friends, families, returning college students, and communities coming together from different areas, our risk will likely increase. Please remain vigilant. We all have a stake in protecting each other.
The response to our screening program has been overwhelmingly positive. Thank you for your support and participation.
Please let us know your questions or concerns.
Have a happy, healthy, sweet, and safe New Year.
Dr. Steve Stein
