Oct 6, 2020
Dear AVS Parents & Guardians,
Last night I had a chance to review information with our Board on “Covid-19 & the impacts on safely returning to AVS”. The slide deck, (link below) is designed to provide our families with information on how the state and county is monitoring Covid-19 cases and the challenges we continue to face with widespread cases in our county. Over the next few weeks, you may be seeing news about other counties near us going back to in-person learning. You may be wondering why our schools in the county are closed longer than others.
The short answer is that Sonoma County has worse COVID-19 numbers than all of our neighboring counties. California has a color-coded ranking system called the “Blueprint to a Safer Economy” that classifies counties by color based on their COVID-19 epidemiology. The state dictates when businesses and schools can reopen based on what color tier they are in.
Right now, we are still in the purple tier, which is the most restrictive. Sonoma County is currently the last Bay Area county in the purple tier. Schools are not allowed to reopen for in-person instruction until they reach the red tier. However, once Sonoma County meets that criteria, we must
keep up those numbers for two weeks before we’re officially listed as red. At that point, schools still have to wait an additional two weeks after the county is listed in the red tier before they have the go ahead to reopen. This means that it will still be at least several more weeks (late-Nov-early Dec)
before schools in Sonoma County are allowed to reopen for in-person instruction. At that point, schools (including ours) will still need to be able to meet state guidelines to regularly test all staff and conduct contact tracing for any COVID-19 cases on campus. We will be able to resume inperson learning when the state allows us to do so AND when we have the systems in place to keep everyone safe. In the meantime, we are working hard to continue to put systems in place for a safe return to in-person learning. LINK: https://999808.a2cdn1.secureserver.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/101220-C19Impacts02.pdf
Thank you for your understanding during these unprecedented times. Together, we will work safely toward the goal we all share: getting children back into the classroom safely.
Public Safety Power Shut Off (PSPS) event coming to Sonoma County Wednesday-Friday
Earlier today the National Weather Service entered into a Red Flag Warning for the north bay hills of Sonoma County. Per the PG&E map below, it appears the orange areas around AVS (blue dot) are projected to experience a PSPS Wed @5:00am-Friday @11:00am. AVS is projected to have power, so we will continue with distance learning as normal. Our staff is aware that some of our families might be impacted with power shutoffs depending on where they reside. Please stay safe!
Enrichment Teaching Staff Contact Information:
Last, but not least…I wanted to provide you the email contacts of our Awesome Enrichment Team in case you had a question or if you need to reach out to any of them while we are in distance learning.
Physical Science: Mr. David Gilbertson [email protected]
Art: Mrs. Barbara Adams [email protected]
Music: Mrs. Kate Foley-Beining [email protected]
Garden/Life Science: Mrs. Anne Loarie [email protected]
Spanish: Mr. Chris King [email protected]
Physical Education: Mrs. Tiffany Bellize [email protected]
Thanks,
Mr. Reno