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Good Morning,
We had our first COVID cases this past week since all in-person learners returned on a daily basis, which resulted in a relatively large number of people needing to quarantine. This may seem concerning at first glance (especially given the fact that we haven’t quarantined anyone since the first week of February), but the reality is that the number of people directed to quarantine this week is actually less than expected. Here is why: with our contact tracing protocols, people that are within 6' of a positive case for 15 minutes or more must quarantine and with all in-person learners attending 5 days a week most desks are within 6' of one another. As a result, the expected number of people that need to quarantine per class is between 3-8. If we use 5 people per class as the average and multiply this by 7 periods, one could expect that about 35 people would need to quarantine per positive case.
In looking at this week’s 2 cases, which resulted in 45 people needing to quarantine, the number of people quarantining is actually considerably less than is to be expected.
Looking Ahead to Spring Break
Next week is only a 4-day week with no school on Friday, April 2nd. April break will span from April 2nd through April 11th. Please note, that even though the Travel Advisory Executive Order ended last week, we are highly recommending that all of our students and staff follow the CDC travel guidelines, if they travel during Spring Break. The CDC recommends COVID-19 testing before returning to school. Go to the city website for the most up-to-date information on testing locations. Testing is an important mitigating strategy that will help to keep us all safe. As a member of the SPS community, please do your part.
High School Course Selection Webinar Recording for 8th Grade Students and Families
Last Wednesday Mr. Roberto and I held a live webinar to review the process for high school course selection and to answer any questions specific to this process. Thank you to all of the students and families that joined. We recorded the webinar for anyone that wanted to attend, but was not able to. You can access the webinar by going to our school website and looking under School News, going onto Mr. Roberto’s 8th Grade Google Classroom or by simply clicking on this link: High School Course Selection Information Session.
COVID Cases for the Week of March 22nd - March 26th
| New Positive Cases |
Number of Rippowam Community Members Quarantined |
| 2 |
45 |
Best regards,
Matthew Laskowski
Principal
Rippowam Middle School
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