Dear Central Office Team Members,
We’ve said it before, and we will say it again: Thank you for everything you’ve done for our students, for our families, and for one another this past year. While it has no doubt been a difficult year, it has also been a year of opportunity and learning. During these unusual circumstances, we’ve learned so much about how to change course and adapt, including how to support our educators and operate our core functions in a remote environment. Central Office team members, like our school-based employees, have shown such resilience through it all. And of course, I would be remiss not to acknowledge the dedication and commitment you showed by going above and beyond and supporting our students and school staff on a weekly basis in schools. I am truly proud and honored to call all of you my colleagues.
We also know how important it is for our team members to recharge and recover so we can start off next year with continued strength and resilience. We hope you can take some time this summer to be with friends and family, and to take time to do the things that bring you joy. With this in mind, we also want to share some DPS updates with you:
Central Office Summer Hours for Internal Meetings
To support our team members in taking time to catch up and refocus this summer, we strongly encourage that internal DPS meetings only be held between 8:30 a.m. and 3 p.m. starting today through July 31; please try not to schedule meetings with other DPS team members outside of these hours. While we do expect team members to continue working full time this summer, we want to limit internal meeting hours so you can have more dedicated work time.
As a district, we do have core functions and external meeting obligations that may start prior to 8:30 a.m. and extend after 3 p.m., and we ask those who support this work to please maintain these core functions, and to please work with your supervisor accordingly. We also understand that different team members have different scheduling needs relating to child care and other obligations, and we encourage those team members to continue to work with their managers as needed.
We hope that this change will support you in taking some time to rejuvenate and refocus this summer.
Updated Mask Policies for Adults
Additionally, we are excited to share some health updates with you based on continued discussion with our health partners.
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Vaccinated employees at any of our non-school-based locations are no longer required to wear masks. This revised guidance extends to any setting and circumstance at our non-school-based locations, including:
- At their desks.
- When walking around in buildings.
- In collaborative work or social spaces (vaccinated individuals can now eat lunch together; individuals should continue to maintain 3 feet distancing.)
- In meetings (note that meetings are still limited to 50% of a room capacity and up to 10 in-person individuals in meetings; participants should continue to maintain distancing in meetings.)
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Unvaccinated employees are required to continue to wear masks in all DPS buildings at all times, except when they are eating or are alone in a dedicated and closed office space or room.
- At this time, all students and employees, regardless of their vaccination status, are required to wear masks in our school locations when students are present, given the need to protect our students who may not yet have access to the vaccine. Vaccinated individuals in school buildings without students present may follow the above outlined protocols.
- As a reminder, managers have a right to confirm vaccination status by asking their employees for proof of vaccination. In order to comply with health and safety guidelines, managers may ask an employee if they are two weeks past full vaccination and when they received their vaccination or will receive a future booster. DPS may ask to see the employee's vaccination card. Managers will not ask follow-up questions of an employee about why they did or did not get vaccinated, because we do not want to solicit private medical information or information that may reveal that an employee has a disability.
Updated Policy on Shared Offices
- Vaccinated employees can share offices and do not need to wear masks.
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Unvaccinated individuals cannot share office spaces with either unvaccinated or vaccinated individuals. The following are not yet permitted:
- Two or more unvaccinated individuals sharing an office space.
- One vaccinated individual with one or more unvaccinated individuals sharing an office space.
Building Traffic Flows
With the lifting of restrictions locally and at the state level, we will be removing some of our internal building restrictions, such as one-way hallways and stairwells, and limited bathroom capacity. You will see these signs being removed over the coming weeks.
We are very excited for a return to more normal operations this summer and next year. We encourage DPS team members to become vaccinated, as this is the fastest path to getting our staff and students back in person with minimal restrictions.
Thank you for all you do! We hope you have a great summer!
Sincerely,
Dwight Jones
Interim Superintendent
