Update coming for school district COVID-19 protocols
March 7, 2022 | By Lisa ScagliottiIn a letter to the Harwood school district community on Monday, school administrators said they will finalize and share later this week updated COVID-19 protocols that likely will go into effect March 14.
Prior to February break as state guidance was beginning to change, Harwood Unified Union School District Superintendent Brigid Nease said the district would hold off before making changes until school had been back in session for a full week after February break. Schools reopened March 2.
State leaders are expected to detail relaxed COVID mitigation measures this week, including aligning guidance for schools to match that for the general public. State health and education officials in late February gave school districts the go-ahead to drop mask requirements in schools where 80% of the students are vaccinated. That is expected to change further statewide this week. Gov. Phil Scott and cabinet members of his administration will hold their weekly COVID-19 press briefing Tuesday at noon. That can be viewed online on a number of statewide news channels and OrcaMedia.net.
Nease, along with COVID-19 coordinators Allison Conyers, school nurse at Brookside Primary, and Kaiya Korb, principal at Waitsfield Elementary, sent Monday’s letter that said daily email notifications of cases will cease. That information will be updated weekly on Fridays on the school district’s COVID-19 section of its website, they said.
As of Monday, the district had reports of four new cases since school went back into session March 2: Two cases at Brookside and one each at Crossett Brook and Waitsfield.
Prior to school vacation week, Nease said several district schools had reached the 80% vaccinated benchmark with Brookside, Moretown and Warren schools still short of that. Children age 5 and older are eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine.
The letter from the school district is below in full.
Monday March 7, 2022
Dear HUUSD families & staff:
The state of Vermont and federal organizations have issued a variety of updates regarding COVID-19 over the past two weeks. As we shared in a message sent just before the recent school break (see that message here), we are reviewing these changes along with the data within our own district. We felt it was prudent to wait a full week after returning from the recent school holiday before making any changes to our protocols. As such, please anticipate updates on HUUSD COVID-19 protocols to be released after this Wednesday, 3/9, once we have been back in schools for a full week.
As of today, we have learned of 4 cases of COVID-19 in the HUUSD learning community that were in school during their contagious period at Brookside Primary School (2), Crossett Brook Middle School (1) and Waitsfield School (1). Identified close contacts have been notified via email.
Please keep in mind that any student/staff with symptoms is expected to stay home. Students identified as close contacts do not need to quarantine from school, but will be provided test kits.
Going forward, we will no longer be sending district-wide notifications of COVID-19 daily tallies. The total number of cases of individuals in our schools while considered infectious with COVID-19, along with a weekly case count, can be found on our district website here. This information will be updated each Friday.
Respectfully,
Allison Conyers, HUUSD COVID coordinator
Kaiya Korb, HUUSD Building-based COVID administrator
Brigid Nease, HUUSD Superintendent of Schools