Summer Flyer #5 - August 12, 2021
Summer Flyer #5: August 12, 2021
Upcoming Events:
8/17 - First Day of School - Minimum Day
8/17-20 - Minimum Days (12:00p dismissal)
8/19 - New Parent Info. Night, 6:00p - IN PERSON
8/19 - Back to School Night, 6:30p - IN PERSON
MMCA 21-22 Parent Orientation Handbook link
Breakfast Update
Good news! We received confirmation this morning
via USDA that all of our breakfast orders for the 21-22 school year will be FREE! For parents that have already paid for future breakfasts, you can coordinate refunds with our Business Manager Denise Thorman at dthorman@mmcharter.org.
Kindergarten Parents
We are hosting a “meet and greet” for our new Kindergarten students on Monday, 8/16/21, from 11:00a - 11:30a.
COVID-19 Protocols for the 2021-2022 School Year
Good afternoon MMCA Families,
Several families have inquired about what our COVID-19 related protocols are going to be for the upcoming school year. Based on the past several weeks, including the Governor adding new rules less than 24 hours ago, I strongly suspect our protocols are going to be fluid.
While I’m very excited to start the school year, the reality is we are going to have to deal with COVID-19 again. For historical context, we have had to develop a lot of “COVID mitigation plans” to operate over the past couple school years. This link will provide you access to the dozen or so COVID related mitigation documents we’ve had over the past year and a half. I believe the mitigations we had in place last year were very successful. Between all staff and students, we had less than (10) total COVID-19 cases last year, with ZERO cases contact-traced back to our school site. As we move forward, we will take what we’ve learned from the prior years and apply what we feel worked best.
Summarized, the COVID-19 mitigations we will be carrying over from our prior year mitigation plans include:
Continued utilization of the RGF REME HALO air purification systems we installed on every HVAC unit in the school last year (RGF is now claiming greater than 99.9% effectiveness in eliminating COVID-19 and other viruses);
Continued utilization of MERV 13 or greater air filters with longer run times for our HVAC systems;
Continued following of the CDC enhanced cleaning protocols;
Continued smaller lunch / lunch recess groups;
Continued increased access to hand sanitizer; and
In some circumstances, continued use of plexiglass dividers to facilitate lessons and instruction
During Summer Break, CDPH changed their state COVID-19 guidelines for schools about six times, with their ‘final’ draft being published earlier this week.
Summarizing the new CDPH Guidelines, as they apply to our school:
There’s no more mandated minimum physical distancing requirements between students;
Students or staff that are close contacts of COVID-19 positive cases no longer have to quarantine and can still attend school as long as they are asymptomatic (we are still required to do contact tracing notifications, but ‘close contact’ students will be allowed to stay at school as long as they are asymptomatic); and
Masks are required for all staff and students within classrooms - not required when outdoors, or indoors when eating, drinking, doing PE and certain pedagogical reasons (ex. teaching phonetic reading)
Masks Specifically
Ultimately, our County Health Leadership has made it very clear that they expect all schools within Placer County to follow the new CDPH Guidance on this issue.
While our staff and our 4th-8th grade students dealt with masks last year, this will be new for our preK-3rd grade students, where masking was optional this year. I can assure you that our staff will handle this delicately and appropriately. For students who forget their masks, we won’t consider it a disciplinary issue - we’ll just hand them a disposable mask to wear. Like last year, we will also be maximizing our outdoor instructional time (weather and air quality permitting), and we will give students the opportunity for mini mask breaks throughout the day.
The CDPH rules also provide for, in limited circumstances, a M.D.-based doctor’s note for students with a specific medical condition that precludes them from having to wear a mask. I do anticipate that we will have a few students where this will apply.
What do I do if my child is sick?
Have your child stay home and come back to school when they have been symptom free without fever reducing medications for at least 24 hours. If you suspect
COVID-19, please get them tested.
Another new element vs. last year related to COVID-19: Students who have COVID-19 may now come back to school on Day 7 (from symptoms starting) IF they have a negative COVID test taken after Day 5, otherwise it’s still 10 days from symptom onset.
I know there’s a lot of information here. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at brent@mmcharter.org.
Sincerely,
Brent Boothby, Executive Director
M.M.C.A.
