Sisters and Brothers,
The Joint Stakeholder Coronavirus Response Team met once again tonight. Currently, 22 staff members are required to quarantine as close contacts while 14 are currently infected with the coronavirus. An additional 4 staff members are symptomatic and presumed positive. 116 Haverhill Public Schools students are quarantined as close contacts while 63 are confirmed positive and 5 more are symptomatic. Of these, the District reported 12 new cases among staff and 43 new student cases to DESE, though public health officials noted that DESE’s reporting is not currently reflecting these cases.
With the implementation of regular surveillance pool testing to identify asymptomatic cases, conditions which can enable students and educators to return to and maintain in-person learning safely are on the horizon.
The JSCRT continues to discuss a metric which identifies the factors taken into consideration when determining a change in learning model, whether on a classroom, building, or district-wide basis. These factors include:
- in-school positivity rates as determined by regular pool testing
- community positivity rates as reported by the Department of Public Health
- available staff due to quarantine requirements
- progress toward 100% vaccination of staff
Once a final draft of this metric is approved we will be sure to share it with you all.
In the meantime, I encourage all educators to participate in regular pool testing when it is available to you, and to communicate to either your students or their parents directly the importance that they participate as well. The more of us who join in this effort, the more success we will have at keeping our community safe.
In Solidarity,
Anthony