The Board of Trustees held a special meeting yesterday to discuss two important topics; 1.) COVID safety and testing protocols and 2.) Air quality guidelines.
Here is the latest:
School COVID safety plans: Our schools continue to refine their COVID safety protocols. In addition to the District safety measures, schools have specific, detailed protocols. Click here for school COVID safety plans.
Meal safety: In response to parent feedback, schools are tweaking lunch procedures. Changes include limiting mask-off eating time to under 15 minutes for students, and spreading out the lunch periods to reduce the numbers of students potentially interacting. MVWSD is also ordering more picnic tables. These measures are in addition to social distancing and eating outside as much as possible (depending on the campus configuration).
COVID testing: Regular, on-campus COVID testing for students and staff members is starting the week of Sept. 7. This program will test students weekly as a protective measure, in addition to providing the required testing on campus for students who have been exposed to a positive case. Please complete your consent form this weekend (Sent in a separate email). See below for testing details.
Absences for quarantined students: MVWSD will explore ways, within state parameters, to make attendance rules more flexible to aid families with students in quarantine. Additionally, MVWSD will develop recommendations for how schools can provide missed work to absent students without overburdening teachers.
Air quality: The Board provided input on District guidelines for times of poor air quality. District staff will gather additional input from parents to inform actions at specific AQI levels, and bring a plan to the Board for consideration in early September. MVWSD continues to monitor the air quality index (AQI) using EPA’s AirNow.gov. For more information, click here.
HEPA filters in every classroom: MVWSD is purchasing HEPA filters for every classroom. These should be delivered to rooms in the next two weeks. These filters will be an additional layer of protection to help clean the air when wildfire smoke is bad. This is in addition to our schools’ updated HVAC systems that have highly effective MERV-13 filters, which is the highest-grade filter available for our units, or air purifiers with filtration ratings at least as high as the MERV-13. Our HVAC systems’ MERV-13 filters will remove 90% of smoke particulate, but not all of smoke odor.