Weekly Check In
Madrone Trail Community,
What a strange Halloween celebration "at school" we had yesterday! I missed seeing the whole school at our Halloween parade, but was grateful we were able to something. My children were thrilled to be able to show off their costumes to their classmates. As I helped put makeup on my 4th grader after lunch and before afternoon class, we experienced that same excitement and anticipation that happens at recess when all the children change into their costumes before the parade.
Speaking of Halloween, we know families will celebrate Halloween this weekend in many different ways. Whatever you choose please be safe, wear a mask, and practice social distancing. Case rates are rising in Jackson County, and until they go down school will continue to happen remotely.
You might have heard that the Governor held a press conference today and ODE (Oregon Department of Education) released new guidelines that are a bit more relaxed and more in line with surrounding states. The big change is that the State test positivity rate metric will no longer be used to determine if schools can go back to an on site model. The metrics will rely solely on County numbers. This is good for counties like Josephine County who have had very low case and test positivity rates, and were only prevented from doing an on site model by the state metric. Despite the relaxed metrics, Jackson County still unfortunately has too many cases to be able to consider on site models at this time. Let's all do our part to lower those numbers. We will have a more detailed picture of how these new metrics will play out next week.
Don't forget to pick up and drop off materials if you haven't already. Many classes need students to have new supplies for classes next week.
Stay safe, don't forget to vote if you haven't already, and enjoy the beautiful fall weather and colors.
Happy Halloween,
~Cori Royer
Assistant Director/Games Teacher
