As a reminder, at the School Board meeting on February 4, Superintendent Haas recommended to the Board that the division progress to Stage 4 of our Return to School plan beginning March 1. Under this proposal, students in Grades PK-3 would attend school four days a week, and students in Grades 4-12 would attend school two days per week. The School Board will vote on the recommendation during their next meeting on February 11.
In case you missed the February 4 meeting, we wanted to provide links to the full video recording as well as the slideshow presented that evening and references for the data and issues discussed by Dr. Vergales.
To help you navigate the video recording, please see the following timestamps:
- 04:00 | Start of “Stage 4 Recommendation” presentation
- 04:55 | Stage 4 Overview
- 06:17 | Interim Guidance from the Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) in collaboration with the Virginia Department of Health (VDH)
- 06:51 | VDOE: Five Steps to Guide Reopening Decisions: Steps 1-3
- 13:13 | Local Health Professionals
- 14:00 | Ryan McKay, Director of Policy and Planning, Blue Ridge Health District
- 16:46 | Dr. Jeff Vergales, Pediatric Cardiologist and Associate Professor, University of Virginia
- 28:42 | VDOE: Five Steps to Guide Reopening Decisions: Steps 4-5
- 35:04 | Stage 4 Decision Timeline
- 36:37 | Superintendent’s Recommendation
- 37:35 | Question-and-Answer Session
References for the health and safety topics discussed by Dr. Vergales:
- Survey Results: The Effect of COVID 19 on Children in Virginia (Virginia Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, Dec 2020)
- Suicide Ideation and Attempts in a Pediatric Emergency Department Before and During COVID-19 (Pediatrics, American Academy of Pediatrics, Feb 2021)
- Safety and Efficacy of the BNT162b2 mRNA Covid-19 Vaccine (New England Journal of Medicine, Dec 2020)
- Trends in U.S. Emergency Department Visits Related to Suspected or Confirmed Child Abuse and Neglect Among Children and Adolescents Aged <18 Years Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic — United States, January 2019–September 2020 (Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dec 2020)
- COVID-19 Cases and Transmission in 17 K–12 Schools — Wood County, Wisconsin, August 31–November 29, 2020 (Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Jan 2021)
- Incidence and Secondary Transmission of SARS-CoV-2 Infections in Schools (Pediatrics, American Academy of Pediatrics, Jan 2021)
- Open Schools, Covid-19, and Child and Teacher Morbidity in Sweden (New England Journal of Medicine, Jan 2021)
- No evidence of secondary transmission of COVID-19 from children attending school in Ireland, 2020 (Eurosurveillance, May 2020)