Week #14 in the books! A few more COVID related "hiccups" for sure - but we're still here - supporting our students and families! We aren't going anywhere! GO RAMS!
Lots to talk about this week...so I'll get right to it!
SOME ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON WHAT IT MEANS TO BE A SCHOOL PLACED ON "OUTBREAK" STATUS BY MAINE CDC.
First, I want to be clear that we care deeply about our students, staff, and families and take every single case of COVID 19 in our schools seriously. It is important to know that overall, being placed on "outbreak" status by the Maine CDC isn't necessarily a bad thing. In fact, there are a lot of good things that come along with it. A school in the state of Maine is given "outbreak" status if 3 or more cases are identified over a 14 day period that are epidemiologically linked. This link can occur inside the school or outside the school. In the case of Gorham High School's recent "outbreak" designation - the epidemiological link is outside of the school.
When outbreak status is given, schools are assigned a case management team from the Maine CDC. This team is an independent group that reviews all of the cases that have happened to date within a school. This independent group pays particular attention to whether or not there are any connections between cases within the school or in the community. They provide another set of "expert eyes" to help us monitor our data and ensure our schools remain the safe places they are even as cases may continue to increase in our community.
The group helps provide epidemiological resources to the school we otherwise would not have. They can recommend a school or segment of the school move to remote learning for a period of deeper cleaning. They can provide assistance in monitoring data for trends we may not be as well trained to see. They can also recommend additional COVID testing for students and/or staff, although at this time the CDC recognizes the abundance of testing sites available in our community and the fact that our families are already doing a great job of testing when it is suggested by our school nurses. Therefore the CDC is not recommending additional testing at this time. In addition to this kind of case review, the management team also works with schools to determine whether or not any additional services are needed. Outbreak investigations are closed after a school goes through a period of 28 days without logging a new case.
Just yesterday Principal Jandreau, our GHS school nurses, Assistant Superintendent Record and myself met with our case management team from Maine CDC for the first time to review all of the cases that have happened to date. At this time, our plan to re-open GHS to in person learning within our hybrid model on Monday, Dec. 14, 2020 stand with the full support of our team. As we work to re-open the school on Monday, our team will continue to monitor data and if any concerns arise, we will take the necessary steps to address those concerns and inform the community.
It is also important to note that schools who are designated as being in outbreak status are reported on the MDOE site which is updated each Thursday. Beginning this coming Thursday Gorham High School will be publicly listed on this site. You can view the site by CLICKING HERE. Additionally, Dr. Shah is known to report new outbreaks during his weekly Friday public addresses. He may very well mention Gorham High School in his address today. Folks should not feel a sense of shame from this designation, and instead treat this as the "gift" that it is in terms of additional resources being provided to our community. The CDC's goal, the Maine Department of Education's goal, and the goal of the Gorham School Department are all the same - do whatever it takes to keep our children safe, our staff safe, our communities safe, and our schools safely open.
WE CONTINUE TO NEED YOUR HELP TO KEEP OUR SCHOOLS OPEN
Over the past 14 weeks, we have had 21 cases of COVID 19 associated with our schools. This means we have seen 21 opportunities for COVID 19 to spread in our schools and it has NOT. This data tells me that our schools are safe places. But in order to keep these safe places open to face to face learning in our hybrid model, we really need your help in areas outside of the school. When I say "your" I mean, students, staff, parents and community members. Schools have demonstrated they are safe places with our safety protocols in place, however we cannot remain open unless our community is also a safe place. As we have seen, just one case from the community that requires us to designate staff members as close contacts can close a school for at least a period of 10 days and force a school to go to remote learning. A positive case that requires us to designate bus drivers as close contacts required to quarantine for 10 days can shut the entire district down. None of us wants this. The next question is - what can we do that isn't already being done to help? Luckily, there are answers to that question!
First, double down on the "big three":
1. Wear face coverings.
2. Keep your six and not just indoors, outdoors too.
3. Wash/Sanitize those hands frequently.
Second, think about the following a little more closely:
1. Is going to that in person gathering with friends really necessary?
2. Can you work to create other ways to "cohort" outside of school? In other words - limit interactions with others outside your immediate family as much as is possible, and if you feel you must visit others, make it with a close circle of friends that doesn't change much (while wearing face coverings and physically distancing of course). Use other digital methods for gathering with larger groups that may be outside this tight knit group.
3. If you don't have to travel please consider not.
4. If you are sick - stay home.
Now, I know when I say this that folks are tired of this Pandemic. We all want to get on with our lives and we grow impatient with restrictions and tired of constantly having to "be creative" to do the things we once did without much thought. Man, do I know that feeling! We can be angry, we can be sad, we can do our best to put smiles on and pretend this all isn't real - but the reality is, that it is real. Even though a vaccine may be on the horizon, we are still several months away from it becoming widely available enough to put our schools out of danger of having to close. If we want to keep our schools open, we need your help as we get closer to a vaccine. As any good runner will tell you, you have to push the hardest the closer you get to the finish line. That's where we are folks...close but not there yet.
A NEW THOUGHT EXCHANGE SURVEY IS OUT - PLEASE PARTICIPATE! WE NEED YOUR VOICE!
A message from Assistant Superintendent Chris Record below:
Dear Gorham students, staff, and parents/guardians,
We hope you and your family are doing well. We are now in our 14th week or having students back in our schools. We are thankful for the efforts of everyone in making this happen. Now more than ever, it takes a village to collaborate in order to teach and support our children/students. With that in mind, after three months or so of participating in the Gorham hybrid model of teaching and learning, we would like to hear your thoughts on what is going well and what you have for questions or concerns. We want to continue to do what is working well and make adjustments, if possible, to what is not working so well. Please participate in this Thought Exchange. It will remain o pen until 12/21/20. Please continue to participate throughout the next two weeks...
Thought Exchange Link:
https://my.thoughtexchange.com/#470136252
I have two quick resources to share. The first is from Maine Health and the 5-2-1-0 website. Maine Health has developed a variety of resources to help your family live 5-2-1-0 every day! And for families of children with intellectual and developmental disabilities, we have tailored tools specific to the challenges these children and their families face.
Check out their incredible resources by CLICKING HERE.
A LITTLE POSITIVE BOOST TO HELP GET US ALL TO THE UPCOMING HOLIDAY BREAK
I have THREE things I want to share here. First, if you didn't get a chance to watch the School Committee meeting from Wednesday night live on GOCAT...you missed an awesome example of why we do what we do here in the Gorham Schools! We had 40+ GHS students and their coaches/advisors at the meeting on Wednesday night to share their experiences and "lessons learned" from the past fall in trying to play their respective sport or showcase the arts. Our students ROCK! They were articulate, they were passionate, and they shared many a lesson us adults should remember once in a while about perseverance, collaboration, and striving towards a common goal. If you want to watch - check out the meeting recording LINKED HERE. Their presentation starts at about the 18 minute mark. Worth the watch! These students represent our community so well!
The second thing I wanted to share was actually two wordles. The other night, I sent out TWO quick surveys. The first was sent to K-12 parents asking them to help support our staff the last week before the holiday by helping me to give them a little positive boost. I asked parents to share one word that describes our incredible staff. Within the first 3 hours, I have over 1,000 responses! The second survey, I sent to K-12 staff, only this time, I said I wanted to do something to support our parents in helping me to give them a little positive boost since we all know parents are working hard to help support us too. Once again, in the first few hours of the survey, I received an awesome response with over 200 staff responses! Here are the wordles for each:
From PARENTS describing our incredible staff:
From STAFF, describing our incredible parents:
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