Message from the Superintendent
Dear PUSD Community,
It is hard to believe that we are already one month into the 2021-2022 school year! Our students and staff continue to do their best during these most unusual times to make learning fun, engaging, and exciting. Our community continues to support our students as well, with the support of PEF, Tournament of Roses announcing the distribution of 14,000 books generously donated by The UPS Store® network to Pasadena Unified School District (PUSD) elementary schools in recognition of International Literacy Day. Thank you to all of our supporters who recognize the value of a high quality public education system in our community.
Testing and Vaccination Update
Student Vaccination Policy and Process
The PUSD Board of Education recently enacted a policy that states that students age 12 and older must either show proof of vaccination or take weekly tests with informed consent from parents/guardians by October 15. All students under age 12 will be required to get weekly COVID-19 tests with informed consent from parents/guardians by October 15.
The process is as follows:
We are completing the upload of student data to our management tool Qualtrics after which notifications will be sent to families with instructions on how to upload proof of vaccination. We anticipate that this will begin on Monday, September 20.
Once this information has been gathered and a determination has been made as to which students are to be tested, the testing program will be fully implemented.
Our testing teams will focus on the elementary sites from Tuesday through Friday and will rotate to secondary sites on Mondays.
In the meantime, parents/guardians can provide informed consent for COVID-19 testing in two ways:
Register with Color, the testing management system at https://home.color.com/covid/sign-up/start?partner=cdph094
Complete the printed registration forms in English or Spanish provided at the testing clinic.
The District will be sponsoring vaccination clinics at Willard Elementary School on Wednesday, September 22 and Marshall Fundamental School on Monday, September 27. You can register for these or other community options to get vaccinated at myturn.ca.gov.
Staff Vaccination Policy and Process
Directions for staff to upload their vaccination information was sent out to staff last week. We are pleased to announce that a significant number of our employees have completed the process of uploading their proof of vaccination. The process will be similar to the one outlined for students.
Testing
I am happy to announce that we have received a new batch of PCR tests and testing for COVID-19 will resume this week at all of our schools for students whose parents have provided informed consent as well as at our drive-through testing clinic tomorrow from 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. at 351 S. Hudson Ave. in Pasadena (enter on Oak Knoll Avenue). It is important to note that we were still able to test students and staff last week who were symptomatic or quarantined as well as our unvaccinated athletes. Demand for District-provided COVID-19 testing has grown as well, with 2735 COVID-19 tests administered between 8/24 and 9/7.
Video: PUSD Hosts Drive-Through Testing Clinic
PUSD Exposure Management
Guided and supported by the State and local health departments, PUSD’s Exposure Management Plan (in the PUSD COVID-19 Safety Plan) is the set of actions that school and district staff follow, based on the individual circumstances of each student, family, and employee, to contain and reduce COVID-19 exposures at the classroom, school, and district levels.
A key way to slow the spread of COVID is contact tracing, during which District and School Compliance Teams work to let students, parents, guardians, and employees know if their students may have been exposed to COVID-19, how to monitor their child’s and family’s health for signs and symptoms of COVID-19, provide information on how to get tested, and asking them to:
- Isolate if they have a confirmed case and/or symptoms of COVID-19, or
- self-quarantine if they are a close contact, meaning that they were exposed by being within 6 feet for more than 15 minutes over a 24-hour period of someone who has a laboratory-confirmed COVID case.
Compliance Team members have been trained to ask specific questions to determine risk exposure.
Link to PUSD Student Exposure Management Chart graphic
Thank you, stay well, and see you in school tomorrow morning.
Sincerely,
Brian McDonald, Ed.D.
Superintendent
#VaccinatePasadena
Getting the vaccine will help protect our students and employees. COVID-19 vaccines are available for everyone ages 12 and over. Get the COVID-19 vaccine to keep our community safe! www.pusd.us/vaccine
#VaccinatePasadena #PUSDproud @CityOfPasadena
Pasadena Unified School District
Email: communications@pusd.us
Website: www.pusd.us
Location: 351 South Hudson Avenue, Pasadena, CA, USA
Phone: 626-396-3606
Facebook: facebook.com/pasadenaunifiedschooldistrict
Twitter: @PasadenaUnified