October 2020 |WSD Student On-Site Letter

October 14, 2020 | School Board Approved that Summer Sports 2.0 Begin

October 20, 2020 | Warrior Word Returning to Campus Learning Model Edition

Interim Superintendent Andy Harlow reviewed WSD Returning to Campus Learning Models for the 2020-2021 School Year during the Warrior Chat on Thursday, October 15. If you missed our Warrior Word, please make sure you re-watch it here: https://youtu.be/LQPvlrplrBY

Returning to Campus Learning Models: WSD is currently in Model 2 and is working vigorously to prepare to move to Model 3 in November.

October 19 - November 25 | WHS Athletics has got approved permission by Grant County Health Department to bring athletics back to our campuses for many of our sports programs starting Monday, October 19th 2020 and ending on Wednesday, November 25th 2020. These opportunities that will be offered are completely optional for WHS athletes grades 9-12. The main intent for these athletic opportunities is to replace the time that was lost for this past summer due to COVID-19. The traditional summer window of June - July will now be replaced with the NEW Summer 2.0 window.

Grant County Health Department Flow Chart

October 19, 2020 | COVID-19 Symptoms Class A & B

• Class A: • Fever 100.4 F/38 C or higher • Chills • Cough • Shortness of breath/difficulty breathing • New loss of taste or smell

• Class B: • Fatigue • Muscle or body aches • Headache • Sore throat • Congestion or runny nose • Nausea or vomiting • Diarrhea

New WSD Health Screening / Attestation From

• WSD Staff and Guest Attestation Form: Grant County’s Health District (GCHD) has determined that everyone coming into a place of employment will be required to attest they are not experiencing COVID-19 symptoms prior to returning to a WSD location.

• WSD has switched the process to the required system-wide COVID-19 health attestation form, and the district will be using Skyward to accomplish Staff Health daily attestations. We ask that you take this health screening form before coming into campus. More information Here.

September 2020 |COVID WSD Protocols & Procedures

COVID-19 WSD Safety Procedures

September 15, 16, & 17 2020 |Soft Start - The first week of school will be all about connecting and contacting our WSD students and families. This school year will be different for all of us, please remember to give grace and encouragement to yourself, staff, and students.

August 2020 | WSD adopts Distance Learning Model for Quarter 1 of the 2020-2021 school year. Distance Learning 2.0 is the learning model that WSD will follow for the first quarter of the 2020-2021 school year. WSD will take all the experience from this past spring and make improvements by training staff, students, and parents.

• WSD families will have the option to enroll their students in a new 100% online virtual school. This option will be in partnership with Edgenuity. Online virtual school will be a semester or year-long commitment.

• The School Board approved a new 2020-2021 School Year Calendar during the August 11th School Board meeting.

• The first day of the 2020-2021 school year will now be September 14th.

July 2020 | WSD Summer Employee Health Screening From - Staff - Guest

Grant County’s Health District (GCHD) has determined that everyone coming into a place of employment has to answer these questions and have their temperature checked. We ask that you take this health screening form before coming into campus. IF your supervisor contacts you to come into the district to work, please follow the screening protocol. ***Prior to your arrival, YOU NEED TO CHECK YOUR TEMPERATURE. If you have a fever of (100.4F) STAY HOME.*** **Thermometers are available if you don't already have one Heath Screening forms are for staff and WSD guest.

On- Site Safety Measures

• In addition to the daily screening form, we want to remind everyone of the on-site safety measures required by all people in and around our District facilities.

• Face coverings must be worn, whether inside or out, by all people on-site when not working alone.

• Wash your hands frequently with soap and water (if not readily available use hand sanitizer).

• Maintain a distance of 6-feet inside and outside - If less distance is required, it should be for shorts periods (less than 15 minutes), and masks are required.

• Stay home if you are sick to protect yourself and others.

June 2020 | Re-entry Planning: WSD is working in 3-month increments.

• WSD is committed to distance learning that is rigorous and graded.

• WSD is committed to dismantling and disrupting inequitable practices.

• WSD is committed to discovering the unfinished learning.

Last day if the 2019-2020 school year is June 15

May 2020| Warrior Chat Webinars

• Grab & Go Meals + Student Materials Pick-Up

• Continue Distance Learning

• Wahluke Re-entry Planning Committee

April 2020|

• Distribution of Packets and Printed Material - April 8 and beyond

• Begin the process of implementing some distance learning: WSD will have a combination of online and paper-based materials

• Student Technology Handout - April 13 and beyond

March 30, 2020 | Warrior Word School Closure Edition

Monday March 23, 2020 Update | Social Guidelines Letter. Guidelines for gatherings of children and youth while schools are closed.

Sunday March 15, 2020 Update | As of Sunday, March 15th, 2020 at 3:00 PM, the Wahluke School District classrooms, facilities, playfields, and anything connected to the District are closed until further notice. This includes all students, their parents or guardians, and ALL staff .This also means that there is NO school or work on Monday, nor any other day this week. As all of you can understand, the situation in our community is very fluid and is changing very quickly. More information regarding Food Services will be communicated at a later date. Our community’s health is our primary care. The Wahluke School District is completely closed until further notice.

Friday March 13, 2020 Update | WSD school closure announcement letter. The state has mandated the closure of all public schools in Washington due to the spread of COVID-19 (coronavirus). All Wahluke Schools will be closed March 16- April 24. Effective immediately, all after-school activities, athletic competitions and/or practices, events, assemblies, travel/field trips, and other travel are postponed until the return of school. All public school district buildings and facilities, including the fitness center and gymnasium, will also be closed beginning Friday, March 13.

Thursday March 12, 2020 Update | COVID-19 Family Letter (3/12/2020)

Tuesday March 10, 2020 Update | Public School events for the week of March 10 - 12

Monday March 9, 2020 Update | COVID-19 Info Update One more patient bringing the total to two COVID-19 cases in Eastern Washington.

Thursday March 5, 2020 Update | GCHD was notified late this evening that a Grant County resident hospitalized at Central Washington Hospital tested presumptive positive for COVID-19. We understand the community's need for information and we will provide an update tomorrow morning.

Wednesday March 4, 2020 Update|COVID-19 Take Home Letter

Tuesday, March 3, 2020 Update| The Wahluke School District would like to update our staff and parents on what we know regarding the 2019 Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19).

We currently have no confirmed cases of COVID-19, nor any known cases currently under investigation, in our district or our community. The Grant County Health District (GCHD) did announce yesterday (3/2/2020) that there are two individuals in Grant County that are being investigated for the virus. The GCHD is reporting the patients who were tested are currently under isolation awaiting results. Additional details about the individuals, including their age and location, are not being released unless the testing results show a confirmed case of COVID-19.

We are monitoring the situation very closely. We’re asking our teachers and staff to talk to our students, reminding them to wash their hands often with soap and water following best practice guidelines and to stay out of other’s personal space. We will continue to receive guidance from GCHD to communicate to staff and parents if the situation changes in our District or in our community. Please continue to monitor the District website and our social media pages for more information. You can find more information on the Grant County website at https://granthealth.org/

Monday March 2, 2020 Update| Public Health Alert Announcement Letter

School Closure Plan: The state has mandated the closure of all public schools in Washington due to the spread of COVID-19 (coronavirus). All Wahluke Schools will be closed March 17- April 24. WSD schools closed on March 16, 2020.

Transportation: School bus seats are being disinfected with hospital-grade disinfectants, twice per day. Each student is also supplied with a squirt of hand sanitizer as they board the bus.

Maintenance: Daytime custodians are paying special attention to disinfect high-touch items, such as doorknobs, light switches, sink faucets, towel dispensers, etc.

Nighttime custodians are taking extra care to disinfect tables, chairs, counters, and communal areas/items. As a result of the additional care on those items, cleaning floors and other things that are not necessarily touched on a regular basis are not being addressed on their usual schedule.

Handwashing: Experts agree that the best safeguard against the development and spread of not only this virus, but all viruses transmitted through touch or saliva (cough or sneeze), is to wash hands thoroughly. Maintenance has confirmed that the district has enough soap and paper towels to promote sufficient hand washing.

We will be hanging posters in each building to remind staff and students to wash their hands. Please direct your students’ attention to the posters to help promote the idea and the need.

Classroom Technology: Technology Services has ordered and will be supplying bottles of Isopropyl Alcohol and cloths to each building for the purpose of cleaning classroom computer devices (Chrome books/iPads).

Communal Classroom Supplies: Local health providers have requested that teachers PLEASE remove student access to ALL communal classroom supplies (pencils, pens, scissors, etc.) … not only for the duration of this virus outbreak, but forever. They strongly believe instances of community illness would dramatically decline with the simple removal of those shared supplies.

Staff: We’re asking our teachers and staff to talk to our students, reminding them to wash their hands often with soap and water following best practice guidelines and to stay out of other’s personal space.

Athletics: WHS Athletics has got approved permission by Grant County Health Department to bring athletics back to our campuses for many of our sports programs starting Monday October 19th 2020 and ending on Wednesday November 25th 2020. These opportunities that will be offered are completely optional for WHS athletes grades 9-12. The main intent for these athletic opportunities is to replace the time that was lost for this past summer due to COVID-19. The traditional summer window of June - July will now be replaced with the NEW Summer 2.0 window.

• The majority of our sports programs will offer their workouts/practices 2 days a week for the time being. (besides football because they are only limited to 20 total practices per WIAA) Your coaches will also be sending out specific information regarding their programs so please be on the lookout for that information.

• Competitions: There will be no competition with other schools during this time. WIAA will not permit contests or scrimmages with other schools until further notice. Our focus is getting student-athletes prepared and conditioned for the upcoming competitive season.

Fitness Center: The district’s Fitness Center will be closed to the Mattawa Community. All key fobs access will be disabled until the Fitness Center opens again. Fitness Center is only open to WSD staff and student athletes as of October 18, 2020.

High-risk Candidates

• People 60 and older

• People with underlying health conditions including heart disease, respiratory illness and diabetes

• People who have weakened immune systems

• People who are pregnant

We must help inform our families who the high-risk candidates are and suggest that being in the school environment is not the safest place for them.

We’ll hang posters at each entry door to inform our families of the high-risk candidates. We should also freely share the facts with the children so that they can take home the information and help educate and inform their families.

Large Groups and Events: Schools have been granted the authority to postpone or cancel pre-scheduled events that might attract large groups. These events will be addressed on a case-by-case basis and on their necessity.

Out of District Travel and Field Trips: We feel it is best to not cross the mountains with students or staff at this time. We are not aware of any immediate field trips or Professional Development (PD) training that would require travel to the west side of the state. However, if there is a plan that we have missed, please alert your supervisor.

That does not mean that we are not allowing staff to travel for personal reasons. But if school or district business requires travel, alert your supervisor.

We know that there are many trips scheduled for May. We are not canceling those trips at this time. These will be considered when we get closer to the end of the month, if necessary.

At this time, travel within Eastern Washington, be it PD or Field Trips is allowed with the appropriate approvals (no changes).

Nutrition Services - Free Meals for Children 0-21

Monday, November 2, 2020 - we start once per week distribution of free meals at 5 locations between 10 am and 4 pm: Priest Rapids Village, Wanapum Village, Desert Aire Park, Volviendo a la Biblia Church in Beverly, and Mattawa Elementary.

COVID-19 affects different people in different ways. Infected people have had a wide range of symptoms reported – from mild symptoms to severe illness.

Symptoms may appear 2-14 days after exposure to the virus. People with these symptoms may have COVID-19:

• • Fever or chills

  • Cough

  • Shortness of breath or difficulty breathing

  • Fatigue

  • Muscle or body aches

  • Headache

  • New loss of taste or smell

  • Sore throat

  • Congestion or runny nose

  • Nausea or vomiting

  • Diarrhea

  • Look for emergency warning signs for COVID-19. If someone is showing any of these signs, seek emergency medical care immediately:

  • Trouble breathing

  • Persistent pain or pressure in the chest

  • New confusion

  • Inability to wake or stay awake

  • Bluish lips or face

Call your medical provider for any other symptoms that are severe or concerning to you.

What to do if you are sick: Announcement from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

How to Protect Yourself When Going Out

• Wear a mask that covers your nose and mouth to help protect yourself and others. Masks offer some protection to you and may protect those around you if you are unknowingly infected with the virus that causes COVID-19.

  • Choose a mask with two or more layers of washable, breathable fabric that fits snugly against the sides of your face.

• Stay 6 feet apart and avoid crowds.

  • The more people you are in contact with, the more likely you are to be exposed to COVID-19.

• Avoid indoor spaces as much as possible, particularly ones that aren’t well ventilated.

  • You may find it harder to stay 6 feet apart in indoor spaces.

• Wash your hands often.

  • Use soap and water for 20 seconds, especially after you have been in a public place or hand sanitizer if soap and water aren’t available.

You can help prevent the spread of respiratory diseases by:

• Washing your hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds, especially after going to the bathroom; before eating; and after blowing your nose, coughing, or sneezing.

• Staying home when you are sick.

• Avoiding close contact with people who are sick.

• Avoiding touching your eyes, nose, and mouth.

• Covering your cough or sneeze with your elbow or with a tissue, then throw the tissue in the trash.

• Cleaning and disinfecting frequently touched objects and surfaces using a regular household cleaning spray or wipe.

• Following CDC’s recommendations for using a face-mask.

  • Everyone 2 years of age and older should wear a mask in public settings and when they are around people who do not live in their household.

    • CDC recognizes there are specific instances when wearing a mask may not be feasible. In these instances, consider adaptations and alternatives.

What you need to know about Coronavirus: Announcement from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Mattawa Community Resources

Mental Health For Our Community

Talking To Kids About The Coronavirus

Grant County Health District

Washington State Department of Health

U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention