Avon Community,
As you may be aware, the NYSDOH issued updated guidance for schools late in the day Friday, April 9th. As a Leadership Team, we reviewed the guidance. Further, we met this afternoon to collectively review the information and to assess it against our current practices as NYS and the CDC have not always been consistent, until this recent action.
Here a very brief, high-level summary:
The new guidelines move the required distance during instructional spaces from 6 feet to 3 feet. For PE and music, the guidance moved from 12 feet to 6 feet.
Transportation guidelines remain the same. We will continue with transportation as we have been with the exception that beginning tomorrow grades 9-12 will begin to attend in person 4 days per week. Our preliminary information showed us that we can transport students within the guidelines on our current runs. There may be some slight delays as there will be more pickups and drop-offs tomorrow.
If you wish to provide your own transportation for your student(s) given these changes, we ask that you contact our Transportation Department.
The CDC no longer promotes the use of (safety shields) barriers. However, we will still use them at Avon at this time. In some situations, most notably while eating, the safety shields will still be needed. We are confident that our current practices are safe and meet the requirements; however, we will likely be making some adjustments to the cafeteria and dining practices to further enhance our protections. We will communicate these adjustments later this week. We are happy to report that students will no longer be required to transport the safety shields.
The CDC guidelines encourage local health officials and school administrators to consider two indicators of community transmission when making plans for in person instruction: 1) the 7-day rolling average, and 2) the total number of new cases in the last 7 days per 100,000 people. We have been in communication with LCDOH officials, our school physician, and other Superintendents. Given there has been no drastic change in our numbers in the region, we do not view this as a barrier to opening at this time. We will continue to analyze the guidance and monitor the information. If needed, we will make necessary adjustments.
Lastly, the CDC has increased its emphasis on airflow practices within the buildings. We installed the recommended filters for the start of the year. As the weather improves, we will maximize our controls to allow for more fresh air. We will also allow for more open windows. This may make controlling the temperature inside the building a little more challenging, so we encourage students to dress in convenient layers.
We, again, thank you for your continued support of our practices and procedures. Please contact your student(s) principal if you have specific questions or concerns about this information.
Thank you.