November 19, 2021
Dear Avon Families,
As you can see there has been a significant rise in COVID cases in our region. Just this week, we have seen a number of cases here at school with both our students and staff. You can see the change from Tuesday to today.
Prior to COVID, school districts everywhere were dealing with a shortage of substitute teachers, aides, assistants, drivers, and clerical support. It has only become worse in the last year. We are fortunate to have several people who help regularly, but the demands are more than ever. You may have noticed some of our additional recruiting efforts and advertisements as we try to stay focused on providing the best learning experiences we can. Our ability to provide live instruction is not entirely related to simply the number of COVID cases. Additional factors must also be considered such as food service, transportation, health offices, and the number of classrooms we can support based on the number of staff absences and available substitutes. A critical number of cases in any of these areas would compromise our ability to continue to provide live instruction.
Locally, we've seen the Dansville School District move to remote instruction until December 1st. While their case counts are up, the reason for going remote was not entirely driven simply by the number of cases. Some of these other factors also played a role.
COVID Updates- Here is the latest information on COVID cases:
On 11/16/21 we were notified of a positive staff member. Collective contact tracing did not reveal any school-related close contacts at this time.
On 11/17/21 we were notified of a positive 9th grade student. Collective contact tracing was done and no school-related close contacts were identified.
On 11/17/21 we were notified of a positive 10th grade student. Contact tracing was done and all school-related close contacts were notified.
On 11/18/21 we were notified of a positive 4th grade student. Contact tracing is ongoing and any close contacts will be contacted.
On 11/18/21 we were notified of a positive 3rd grade student. Contact tracing did not reveal any school-related close contacts.
On 11/18/21 we were notified of a positive staff member. Contact tracing did not reveal any school-related close contacts at this time.
On 11/19/21 we were notified of a positive 7th grade student. Contact tracing is ongoing, no school-related close contacts have been identified at this time.
On 11/19/21 we were notified of a positive 12th grade student. Contact tracing is ongoing, no school-related close contacts have been identified at this time.
On 11/19/21 we were notified of a positive student in Kindergarten. Contact tracing is ongoing, no school-related close contacts have been identified at this time.
Please continue to monitor symptoms closely and have students stay home when sick.
Diagnostic COVID Testing-
As a reminder, testing is available as a diagnostic/response test. If you or your child would like a rapid shallow nasal-swab diagnostic COVID test, please send an email to covid.testing@avoncsd.org. You will then receive a Google form to choose a time for your child to be tested along with the consent form and intake form that will need to be completed prior to the test. If you have any questions please contact Michelle Burke at mburke@avoncsd.org.
Test results take approximately 15 minutes, and you will be notified in the event of a positive result only.
County COVID Information-
As of yesterday, there were 345 cases in Livingston County, 23 cases within the Avon community.
As of yesterday, there were 16 active cases within Avon Schools.
