Dear Students and Families,
Our priority throughout the pandemic has been to provide quality and continuity of learning and safety, whether teaching and learning takes place on campus or in remote-virtual format.
Due to the current surge in Alameda County, positive COVID cases in our community, and the size of our school-wide population, we have made the difficult yet prudent decision to shift to temporary remote-virtual learning starting Monday January 10 with a plan for returning to campus Monday, January 24. Please see the following information that has guided our decision-making.
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CPHD/ACPHD Guidance Yesterday, ACPHD has indicated cases are trending significantly higher in the region and that we are approaching the peak of the Omicron wave.
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Student Absences We have received numerous reports of students and adult personnel with COVID in our first two days. As of today, approximately 20% of students were absent, most for COVID-related reasons. This is an unprecedented number of absences.
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Campus Transmission We have confirmed instances of campus transmission and are in the process of doing contact tracing and sending notifications to those identified as close contacts. Throughout the fall, we had no campus transmission, so this change is significant.
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Continuity of Learning In terms of continuity of learning, we need to safeguard teacher health to ensure student learning continues. We already have confirmed cases of teachers with COVID and with the significant number of students we see affected already, we are taking this preventive measure to ensure and safeguard teacher health. This prioritizes continuity of learning for our students.
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Significant Absence of Essential Employees We now have confirmed COVID cases among transportation and facilities personnel, compromising our ability to deliver campus operations at full scale.
Given these circumstances, we have decided two weeks of virtual-remote learning will ensure continuity of learning for students while also providing the time needed to contact trace cases reported, ride out what ACPHD believes to be the Omicron surge, assess testing options, and reinforce campus operations.
Getting Ready for Monday
Campus will be open 8:00am to 5:00pm tomorrow, Saturday, and 12:00pm to 4:00pm Sunday for all to pick up any books or supplies they may have left at school in order to be ready to start Monday in remote learning. Please complete the green screen app to enter campus this weekend.
As a reminder, here is the remote weekly schedule. for classes starting Monday. Students are expected to attend class via the Zoom links in Schoology in real time per the schedule.
We will continue co-curricular programs at this point, including activities that require campus access (with green screen protocol in place). These smaller groups - some of which have been operating virtually - are isolated from exposure to the entire student body and teachers amid remote, posing less risk to the health of the whole community.
As always, we are doing our best to make prudent decisions that ensure continuity of learning, social connection and mental well-being, and very importantly physical health and safety.
Thank you all for your resilience as we move together through this temporary shift to ensure safety, health and continuity of learning.
