John Bowes
Superintendent's Newsletter
December 30, 2021
Dear Manhattan Beach Unified School District Staff,

I hope this letter finds you well. As we look to the year ahead, I thank you for your partnership and support over the past four months. It has been a gift to work with our amazing MBUSD teachers, staff, students, and families. Today’s message focuses on the return to school on Monday, January 3 for in-person learning, COVID vaccinations, Modified Quarantine, mask wearing, COVID testing, and RUVNA screening.

Return to Campus on Monday, January 3, 2022
As planned, all MBUSD campuses will open on Monday, January 3 for in-person learning. There have been no updates during the winter break from the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health describing changes to current requirements for school opening protocols. Important components of the return to campuses on January 3 are described below.

Vaccination
Vaccination rates for students ages 5-11 and 12-17 continue to climb. To date, the vaccination rate for students in Manhattan Beach ages 5-11 who have received one or more doses is 69.3%, with a full vaccination rate for this age range at 54.6%. 91.5% of students ages 12-17 in Manhattan Beach are fully vaccinated.

In addition, on Wednesday, December 8, 2021, the FDA expanded eligibility for booster shots for 16- and 17-year olds, and the CDC encourages individuals in this age range whose second dose was 6 or more months ago to receive a booster shot. To find out about availability of boosters for anyone age 16 and up, or to schedule vaccination appointments for anyone age 5 and up, parents are encouraged to visit California’s myturn.ca.gov website. 

Our schools’ health and safety efforts are focused on ensuring our ability to support and provide daily in-person instruction for our students. Full vaccination will provide greater opportunity for all students to remain in school and on campus.

If your child has been vaccinated, we are requesting documentation of their vaccination status. This is voluntary but highly encouraged, as this information is helpful when determining quarantine timeframes. Your school site has set up a process for collecting this information; please watch for follow up communication from your principal about how to provide vaccine documentation.

While quarantine rules for positive cases currently remain the same for all individuals, students who are fully vaccinated will not need to quarantine if they are in close contact with a positive case, as long as they remain asymptomatic. Having information about students’ vaccination status will help us minimize the number of students who need to miss school and other activities due to possible COVID exposure. Although the CDC has updated its quarantine and isolation guidance, the California DPH and the LA County DPH have not yet made modifications, so, locally, all timelines remain the same as they were prior to winter break.

Modified Quarantine
Our Modified Quarantine program continues to keep unvaccinated students who are deemed to be close contacts in school. To date, 353 students have benefited from in-person instruction because of the Modified Quarantine - that means that, collectively, these students have been in school for over 3500 more days of school than they would have been under traditional quarantine rules. The Modified Quarantine is effective when students wear masks indoors and outdoors.

Mask Guidelines
As shared in previous Superintendent Newsletters, we will shift from an outdoor masking rule of ‘required’ to ‘strongly encouraged’ at the elementary and middle school levels beginning January 3. This will align our outdoor masking rule across all grade levels from preschool through twelfth grade to ‘strongly encouraged.’

Please note that masking will remain a requirement in all classroom settings, including Physical Education (PE) classes.

In addition, be aware that the State and County indoor masking requirements remain in place and that the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health says that “it is important for everyone to continue to wear masks indoors and in crowded outdoor places.” We will ask that students be thoughtful about this when they are in an outdoor crowd, particularly at recess, nutrition, and lunch.  Please be sure to discuss this with your student(s), along with the importance of wearing a mask properly. A mask should cover the nose and mouth at all times

While outdoor masking becomes optional beginning January 3 as previously planned, we are strongly encouraging all staff and students to wear a mask both indoors and outdoors at all times, and your support and cooperation is greatly appreciated. Please consider the type of mask being worn, especially in light of the more-contagious Omicron variant. See LA County mask guidance here.

COVID Testing
In addition to wearing masks, another step to help provide an additional layer of protection against COVID for students and staff is our on-campus COVID testing program which resumes on January 3. In advance of that, we encourage all students and staff to secure a COVID test prior to returning to campus. Learn more about where to obtain a COVID test here:

 
In addition to the weekly testing available on campus through the District from Malibu Medical Group, beginning on January 3, 2022, our partners at Beach Cities Health District (BCHD) will resume daily COVID-19 testing for students and staff. If you would like to arrange for testing through BHCD, you can make an appointment using this BCHD COVID-19 Testing Registration Link. In order to register, you will need your student’s Aeries identification number as well as the email of the parent listed as your student’s first parent contact in Aeries. Staff members can register using their district email address (ending with mbusd.org) and the last 6 digits of their Employee ID number. 

Testing is provided at no-cost to you through billing your insurance provider. If you have insurance, please be ready to provide that information when you register. Please see BCHD’s FAQs for more information about their testing program.

BCHD testing is administered at BCHD’s main campus at 514 North Prospect Avenue, Redondo Beach, and is held from 2-5 pm, Monday through Friday. Please note that you will need an appointment to be tested. Walk-ups will not be accepted.

We have recently been notified that the California DPH will be providing schools with a supply of at-home test kits for students. We do not yet have details regarding the timing or quantities of tests that will be made available, but we expect to learn more over the next few days. Please know that these test kits will supplement the testing and safety measures the District already has in place and are not intended to supplant our existing COVID-19 school-based testing programs - please watch for an update in the next Superintendent Newsletter.

As we return from the holidays, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health (LACDPH) has issued a number of advisories. Please be sure to review the LACDPH guidance for domestic and international travel, and a special LACDPH Holiday Health Alert can be found here

We strongly urge anyone, not just those who have been traveling or are symptomatic, to seek a COVID test prior to returning to campus on January 3. 

RUVNA Screening
Our RUVNA screening is an important daily practice that asks questions about symptoms, exposure, testing, and diagnoses prior to entering campus. The RUVNA screening tool is one of a series of personal and shared practices we can all engage in to create healthy and safe classrooms and campuses; those practices include hand washing, cough etiquette, being aware of social distancing, wearing a mask, participating in our regular free school campus COVID testing program, and getting vaccinated when eligible. Please consider the RUVNA questions carefully every day. 

Please watch for follow-up messaging from your school site principal over the weekend. The next Superintendent Newsletter will be published on January 7, 2022.

There is a lot to celebrate amidst our many challenges, including that our campuses have been open, our students are thriving, our teachers and staff are collaborating and succeeding, and our community is strong. Let me wish everyone a healthy end to a wonderful winter holiday and a very Happy New Year!

Sincerely,
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John Bowes, Ed.D.
MBUSD Superintendent
Manhattan Beach Unified School District

325 S. Peck Avenue
Manhattan Beach, CA 90266
310.318.7345