BUHSD Update 9-11-20

Superintendent Update 9-11-20
Posted on 09/11/2020
Superintendent Update

 

 

 

 

BUHSD Families,

I want to start this email by acknowledging that today is the anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks that took place in New York and at the Pentagon.  As we remember that day, I want to express my appreciation for the First Responders who played such as significant role at that time and the First Responders who are playing such a vital role at this difficult time with the pandemic. 

As we work through the challenges, we remain closely monitoring the health benchmarks.  The school re-opening dashboard, with yesterday’s update, has upgraded the overall risk level in our district from “Moderate” to “Substantial” with the recommended learning scenario being “Virtual with on-site support”.  The upgrade of risk level is due to an increase in the second benchmark only.

With the data posted yesterday on the dashboard, here is our specific district’s progress:

  • Cases: after last week’s slight increase, we have decreased in cases from 83.19 to 73.10, so that is trending in the right direction and we are still meeting the benchmark with cases for two-weeks being less than 100 cases per 100,000 population;
  • Percent Positivity: with this percentage increasing from 4.99% to 11.2% with the latest dashboard, we have still not met this benchmark;
  • Covid-like Illness: we are still meeting this benchmark with Covid-like illness being below 10% for consecutive weeks.

As a district, we continue to meet two of the three public health benchmarks. We know that the optimal learning environment is with students and teachers in the classroom interacting on a daily basis, so we are moving forward with plans to bring small groups of students identified as highest need back on campus before fall break, and all students who have chosen Option A for Distance Learning/Hybrid after fall break.  The hybrid learning model will require us to assign all returning students to groups and bring them on campus in an alternating schedule to lessen the numbers of students on campus at a given time.  Groups will be determined by the school and communicated to families, with the exact schedule to be used, prior to the start of the hybrid instruction.

Starting hybrid will be contingent upon meeting the benchmarks and not having complications with the groups that come back to campus.

We will continue with the Distance Learning model that we began the year with until we are ready for the hybrid schedule.

 

Sincerely,

Rob Roberson

Superintendent