North Smithfield Public Schools: Superintendent Update - Back To School

Press release from the North Smithfield Public Schools:

8/23/2021

Dear North Smithfield Families and Staff,We are a week away from returning to a new school year. As with the last two years, we will have our challenges but North Smithfield students, families, and school department staff have persevered and come through it together.21-22 School Times and BusingFirst day of school for K-12 students, Tuesday, August 30th, 2021. (K will be an abbreviated day) First day of school for Pre-K, Friday, September 3rd. NSMS/NSHS student school day     7:55am – 2:20pm  NSES student school day                     8:45am – 3:10pmWe anticipate that bus routes and pickup and dropoff locations, as well as times, will be available on the DATTCO website on August 26th. https://www.dattcoschoolbus.com/my-childs-route/?did=6**As a reminder, per federal regulation, students must wear a mask in order to board and ride the school bus.  MaskingThe Governor has issued an executive order requiring masks.  (https://governor.ri.gov/executive-orders/executive-order-21-87)The school department will follow and adhere to governmental orders and laws. Additionally, we will follow Rhode Island Department of Health policies and protocols.  It is our hope that, despite disagreements within the community, our bus drivers, office assistants, nurses, and teachers will be able to focus on transporting, educating, and caring for the students without challenges or pressures over this issue. COVID ProtocolsOur resources are dedicated this year to full in-person instruction, 5 days a week.  Kids need to be in the classroom. There are a number of factors that will allow us to achieve this.

• We have invested in our HVAC systems and all classrooms exceed the RIDOH requirements for air exchanges per hour. Their minimal requirement is 2-3 exchanges, while our classrooms are rated at 4-6 exchanges per hour. 
• We have well-established and proven cleaning protocols. 
• We will be maintaining stable groupings of students from PK-6 along with distancing protocols to the extent possible. 
• We have hired two Certified Nurse Assistants (through a grant) who, along with our nurses will be equipped to administer onsite rapid screenings as well as PCR screenings. 
• To date, at least 40% of our eligible students, 12 years of age and older, are fully vaccinated. 
• All this, along with universal masking, factors into reducing the extent of contact tracing and quarantining. 

ScreeningWe will be sending a link to a form for all parents to fill out. The form will have two parts…

• Part One will replace the daily attestations from last year and emphasize that COVID screening begins at home and confirming that you will not send your student to school if he or she is sick. 
• Part Two will include parental consent allowing our health offices to administer a rapid screening. This is the screening that was used with our student-athletes last year. It is simple enough to be self-administered by the older students, with a 15-minute result. 
• Part Two will additionally ask for parental consent permitting a nurse or CNA to administer a PCR test onsite. PCR tests will be sent directly from the school to a lab for quick results. The PCR results will only be available to our nurse and the family. We hope this will save time having parents go directly to a testing center if a student comes down to the nurse’s office with multiple COVID-like symptoms. 

Contact Tracing and QuarantineAs mentioned earlier, contact tracing and quarantining will be highly targeted.  The RIDOH protocols we are to follow are located at https://www.back2schoolri.com/what-you-need-to-know/These are different from those we followed last year and designed to keep students in school. Multiple factors including ventilation, cleaning, distancing, mask-wearing effect contact tracing, and quarantine. In brief (as of this writing):

• If during contact tracing, a student is determined to be a close contact of a COVID-positive student, and the close contact is vaccinated, he or she will not have to quarantine. (screening and monitoring for symptoms will be recommended)
• If during contact tracing, a student is determined to be a close contact, and the close contact had been diagnosed with COVID within 90 days, the close contact will not have to quarantine. 
• If during contact tracing, 1) the COVID-positive student was wearing a mask (properly and consistently) and 2) the close contact student(s) were also wearing masks (properly and consistently), and 3) all the students maintained 3 feet or more distance, the masked close contact(s) will not have to quarantine, even if they are unvaccinated (screening and monitoring for symptoms will be recommended)
• COVID-positive students will need to quarantine for 7 days and be able to return to school on day 8 with a negative PCR test taken on day 5. 
• Those who are told they need to quarantine will have targeted, priority work (packets for the youngest students) assigned. While we won’t be live streaming classrooms this year, we are working on securing tutors to check-in and assist students who are quarantined if they are not too sick to work at home. 

Other issues that will affect us going into the school year with contact tracing and quarantining will include our community transmission rates, our community and student vaccination coverage, testing, and any related outbreak situations.  Again, all this information and more, including athletics, and many of the “what-if” scenarios people may be thinking about, are available at https://www.back2schoolri.com/what-you-need-to-know/    ConclusionOur teachers are excited to be back in the classroom and see our students in person. We have good protocols in place designed to allow students to remain in school. We will have extra supports and opportunities for students during and after school. Despite some community disagreements, the passion to do what is best for our students is strong. That is a good thing. We are definitely a community that loves and supports our kids. With everyone’s support, I am positive that we can keep our students in the classroom, keep them learning, keep them socially engaged, and keep them safe and happy.  ​

This press release was produced by the North Smithfield Public Schools. The views expressed are the author's own.