Hillsboro School District Students, Staff, and Families,
Yesterday, the Oregon Department of Education (ODE) and Oregon Health Authority (OHA) released updates to the Ready Schools, Safe Learners guidance and advisory health metrics for returning to in-person learning, respectively. (Visit www.oregon.gov/ode to access all of the current guidance documents.)
The most significant change was to the advisory health metrics, which have now been aligned to Harvard Global Health Institute recommendations. These metrics allow for a return to in-person instruction for elementary students at higher levels of community case rates than previously recommended.
Below is an excerpt from the new metrics.
Previously, the upper threshold for transitioning to on-site or hybrid instruction at the elementary level (orange column) was 200, and now it is at 350. This is based on the Harvard Global Health Institute’s research that shows 350 as a case rate per 100,000 of population where the spread of COVID-19 is a destabilizing factor in schools. Below 350, schools have demonstrated an ability to maintain stable environments if they are following health and safety protocols, including physical distancing, hand washing/sanitizing, and mask wearing.
Aside from changes to the health metrics, many elements of the Ready School Safe Learners guidance remain the same. These involve the need for physical distancing, which includes a requirement for each student to have 35 square feet of personal space in their classroom. Additionally, there are cohort limitations that don’t allow for students to come into contact with more than 100 people per week, which continues to make scheduling for our secondary students challenging.
Last Friday, Governor Brown renewed her commitment to prioritizing K-12 education staff for vaccinations and announced that their eligibility would begin on January 25. Despite changing information about the availability and timing of receiving an increased supply from the federal government, we are continuing to collaborate with Washington County Public Health, local healthcare providers, and the Governor’s office on an expedited plan to provide educators opportunities to be vaccinated.
While the details are still not finalized, it appears as though educators will soon have three options for receiving the COVID-19 vaccine:
1. Mass vaccination clinic at the Oregon Convention Center
2. Mass vaccination clinic in the red economy parking lot at the Portland Airport
3. Through their healthcare provider by appointment
Additional information about each of these options, including the timing, how to schedule an appointment, what staff will need to to bring with them, what to expect, etc. will be shared as soon as it is available. In the meantime, please visit www.hsd.k12.or.us/vaccine for the latest updates.
HSD is committed to the physical and mental well-being of students and staff and is working hard to ensure we can meet the following conditions for bringing back large numbers of students to in-person learning as soon as possible:
1. Providing opportunities for staff to be vaccinated. The Board will consider staff vaccination opportunities as a condition for returning to hybrid learning at their meeting on January 26.
2. Meeting the thresholds of the advisory health metrics.
3. Ensuring we can abide by all health and safety protocols that remain required elements of the Ready Schools, Safe Learners guidance (e.g. cohort sizes, physical distancing, health screenings, isolation rooms, etc.)
This week, we expanded our Limited In-Person Instruction (LIPI) opportunities to K-2 students at Title I elementary schools and to targeted seniors at our high schools. We will continue expanding to additional schools/grade levels over the coming weeks. We anticipate being able to provide a more concrete timeline for the return of students in grades PreK-2 to in-person learning in our February 3 update. At that time, we should know more about vaccine availability for staff and how COVID case rates in Washington County are trending.
Our next update will be sent on Wednesday, January 27.
Please visit these webpages for additional information:
www.hsd.k12.or.us/202021schoolyear
www.hsd.k12.or.us/coronavirus
www.hsd.k12.or.us/vaccine
Thank you,
Hillsboro School District
