District Communications

March 4, 2022

Dear WSD Community,

We are writing to provide an update on universal masking requirements at our district. Yesterday, State officials and health experts announced that because of lower COVID rates, effective vaccines and treatments, and reduced strain on the healthcare system, Vermont will transition to an endemic approach to managing COVID-19. These changes will be the same for all Vermonters, including students and staff in Vermont schools. Here’s what to expect moving forward in our district:

• The week of March 7-11 masks will still be required for all students and staff.
• Beginning March 14 masks will be optional for everyone on the WSD campus and on school-provided transportation regardless of their vaccination status.
• This is a shift from our previous message about optional masking being considered once our schools had an 80% student vaccination rate. This shift is based on guidance from The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) assessment of community COVID levels and follows state-wide Vermont recommendations.
• We want our students, families, and staff to know how important it is to respect everyone’s personal choice to wear or not wear a mask.
• Take-home antigen test kits and PCR surveillance testing will continue to be available for staff and students as long as these programs are supported by the state.
• The Vermont Department of Health (VDH) will be releasing changes that simplify isolation, quarantine and testing guidance. We will share more information on this once it’s available.

We know that changes to Vermont’s COVID response will be felt differently by each member of our community. The WSD Leadership Team and school nurses are here to support students, families and staff through these changes. Students and families can call the WSD COVID hotline (802-556-2243), and staff should contact their administrators with questions or concerns.

Please remember that one mitigating strategy that has not changed is the expectation that staff and students should not come to work while sick. Anyone with even mild COVID symptoms should not come to school, even if they test COVID negative.

As a community, we have been through many health and safety changes over the last two years. Thank you to everyone in our community for working together as we take care of each other and focus on what’s best for our learning community.

Sincerely,
Kevin Dirth, WSD Interim Superintendent and the WSD COVID Response Team

Please take a few minutes to watch this video from WSD Nurse and COVID Co-Coordinator Liz Parris as she explains what this masking guidance means for our district.

The WSD will be hosting an in-school clinic on Friday, January 21 from 11am until 5pm. This clinic will be open for booster shots as well as first and second doses for children ages 5-11 and people ages 12 and older. Everyone in our learning community is welcome to receive their vaccine at our clinic including students, staff, and family members. We will be offering a Friday series of clinics throughout January and February for students, staff, and family members.

Sign up for the vaccine clinic here.

If you do not plan to attend the clinic with your child, please fill out and sign the consent form and the pre-vaccination checklist below and send the forms with them to school.

pre-vaccination-screening-form (2) Vermont-Dept-Health-Walk-In-Consent (2)

Thank you for closely adhering to all of the ever-changing guidance and for all of your efforts to keep our learning community safe. As we move into almost two years of the pandemic, we understand a lot more about the COVID-19 virus. Based on the latest guidance from the Vermont Department of Health (VDH) and the Agency of Education (AOE), we are streamlining our COVID response and have developed a new process for responding to COVID in our schools. This guidance is supported by the American Academy of Pediatrics Vermont Chapter (AAPVT), which states, “We must change the way we approach this more transmissible variant and follow the data and the evidence to not only keep our children safe, but to also lessen the burden on our schools.”

Currently, remote learning does not count as an in-session student day per Agency of Education policy. The waiver process will begin later this month which may shift our approach to closures and remote learning, but our primary goal is maintaining safe in-person instruction.

COVID Tests
The Vermont Department of Health has determined that PCR tests are not effective given the 2-3 day delay in acquiring results. This is the type of test conducted during our weekly surveillance testing. Therefore, we will prioritize rapid antigen tests, which are considered more effective because results are available in 15 minutes. This shift will increase testing availability on a daily basis when needed.

Positive Case Notification
In place of contact tracing, we are shifting to a notification process. Instead of individual calls, when the COVID Coordinators are informed of a positive case in our schools, caregivers will receive an email informing them about the exposure and how to respond.

The message will inform you that an individual in your child’s classroom has tested positive. If your child does not have any COVID symptoms, they do not need to quarantine.

If your student is fully vaccinated (2 shots of the COVID-19 vaccine):

• They will receive one take-home test kit with two tests. They should test on days 4 and 5 after their exposure. Tests must be taken 24 hours apart. If tests are negative they can attend school in person. 
• Due to limited supplies, some students may be rapid tested at school rather than have test kits sent home.
• If they test positive, do not send your child to school and follow the steps in What to Do if You Test Positive for COVID-19  
• They should wear a mask around others for the next ten days. Masks continue to be required at school. 

If your child is unvaccinated:

• They should pick up test kits from the school to test for five consecutive days at home and can attend school during that period, as long as all tests are negative.
• If they test positive, do not send your child to school and follow the steps in What to Do if You Test Positive for COVID-19  
• They should wear a mask around others for the next ten days. Masks continue to be required at school. 

Students with possible exposure to a person with COVID-19 in school do not need to otherwise quarantine during their testing periods. If you decide to opt your child out of testing, it is recommended that you follow the State’s quarantine policy.

Instructions on how to use the antigen tests can be found on the Health Department testing website. If your child’s test comes back as positive, please report this on the Vermont Department of Health COVID-19 Self-Test Reporting Form.

Monitor your child for symptoms of COVID-19, regardless of vaccination status. If your child has any symptoms of COVID-19, keep them home from school.

Please call the COVID hotline at 802-556-2243 with any questions or concerns. Call the Vermont Department of Health at 802-863-7240 (option 8) if you have questions about COVID-19. More information is available at the Health Department website:  healthvermont.gov/COVID-19.

Any students who have symptoms must stay home and may return once symptoms are completely resolved.

Continue with Precautions
The precautions we’ve been practicing since the beginning of the pandemic have not changed:

• Everyone, regardless of vaccine status, MUST wear a mask. The VDH suggests we use higher quality masks, such as N95, KN95, or a surgical mask under a cloth mask or multilayer cloth mask.
• Everyone, regardless of vaccine status, MUST stay home when sick.
• Vaccines are highly recommended for students and required for staff.

January 7, 2022

Hello, WSD Community,

Due to increasing numbers of positive cases among students and staff, and an inability to safely open and run academic programming, we have made the decision to close our district Monday, January 10 through Wednesday, January 12. We hope to be able to re-open school on Thursday, January 13.

These canceled days must be made up this year, and we will share the make-up plan with you soon. Currently, remote learning days are not considered official school days by the State of Vermont, so we will not be offering a remote learning option at this time.

We urge everyone to be very careful and stay strong with precautions. Monitor everyone in your household for symptoms of COVID, schedule testing if needed, and if you haven’t already, please consider getting everyone in your household vaccinated or boosted if eligible. We will communicate with you about school-based testing opportunities as soon as possible.

We will resume WMHS basketball practices and games on Monday. All athletes will be required to participate in our Test to Stay (TTS) program. The WSD Athletic Director and coaches will share more information with student-athletes soon.

– The WSD COVID-19 Response Team