Dear St. Francis of Assisi Catholic School Families,
Together we safely and successfully completed our First Trimester with students learning in the classroom, online, and in our outdoor classrooms. We continue to follow our Reopening Plan Guidelines for health and safety protocols, including spraying daily with disinfectant and electrostatic sprayers, morning carline health screenings, utilization of our MERV-15 air filtration and air scrubbers, wearing masks, frequent hand-washing, and socially distanced classrooms.
Upon return from our Thanksgiving break, we were notified of three students and two staff members who tested positive for Covid. We are in the process of working with the Orange County Health Care Agency (OCHCA) as required to report the cases and we have notified the Diocese to update the COVID Dashboard. Since all tested positive during the week we were off-campus, this does not affect our staff and students who are currently on campus. Appropriate disinfecting and cleaning measures will continue and have been escalated during these next three weeks.
Individuals who are determined to be high-risk contacts have been asked to self quarantine for a period of 14 days. Individuals who tested positive must remain isolated for 10 days from the onset of symptoms / positive test and meet criteria to discontinue isolation, which includes being fever-free for a minimum of 48 hours without the use of fever-reducing medication, other symptoms have resolved, and clearance by the School Covid Coordinator.
We are following all actions recommended by OCHCA at this time. Keeping our SFA community safe is a responsibility we all share. We encourage you to speak with your child(ren) and remind them that, while rules such as social distancing during class, and while at lunch and recess may not be fun, they are designed to keep them safe and in school. We also encourage our families to consider behavior off-campus that may be creating risk and to minimize it for the sake of our community.
St. Francis is committed to providing accurate and transparent information regarding COVID-19 cases on our campus, while also maintaining our legal responsibility to ensure privacy and confidentiality for affected individuals. Let's all commit to maintaining privacy for those involved.
If you have any questions, please contact Jennifer Nieto at [email protected]. As a reminder, if your child or anyone in your family exhibits symptoms of COVID-19, please keep your child(ren) home, report your child(ren) absent, and let us know that he or she is experiencing symptoms.
Please keep those affected by COVID-19 across the world in your prayers. Thank you for your continued support.
Be safe and be hopeful,
Jeannette Lambert
Principal
