👉August 20 - RRPS School Reentry Plans E-Newsletter👈

Good morning RRPS Community,

As this school year begins to unfold, it's important to stay up-to-date on changes to school reentry rules and procedures. Below please find the latest information as it relates to school reentry in this third edition of the School Reentry E-Newsletter for the 2021-2022 school year:

RRPS School Reentry Information Web Page

Changes to Masking Rules, Indoor Event Rules and Field Trips

As we notified you on Tuesday, Aug. 17, the Governor's Office and the state made changes this week that will impact your child. In addition, Rio Rancho Public Schools is also making some changes to our COVID-19 safety protocols in order help us keep students in-person, reduce case counts and hopefully eliminate any possible COVID-19 spread in our facilities.

Below you'll find a basic wrap up of the changes to school reentry rules. For further details, visit our School Reentry Information web page using the button on the left.

Face Masks: Starting Aug. 20 (and going through at least Sept. 15), all students (grades Pre-K through 12), staff members, contractors, visitors and volunteers will be required to wear a face mask while indoors on any Rio Rancho Public Schools property, regardless of vaccination status. The indoor mask requirement applies to all individuals aged 2 and older in all indoor public settings, except while eating and drinking.

School Dances: We recognize that many students are looking forward to their scheduled Homecoming dances this year. However, dance settings encourage congregating, being closer than 3-6 feet, etc. In addition, staffing would be problematic. We believe this would be a congregate, high-risk setting for spread, and hence our schools will not be hosting these events this Fall.

Field Trips: Rio Rancho Public Schools will not plan any field trips at this time, to reduce the potential risk of exposure to COVID-19.

Large Gatherings Indoors/Athletics: Rio Rancho Public Schools will not host any large indoor gatherings with limited exceptions. Volleyball competition will be allowed to continue indoors; however, all spectators and players at these limited indoor events must wear a face mask. Guidance for outdoor sporting events and special events remain the same.

Staff Surveillance Testing: Rio Rancho Public Schools will, effective Aug. 23, modify our current staff surveillance testing program. The program will go from testing 25% of unvaccinated staff or those without proof of vaccination on file a week, to testing 100% of staff members who are unvaccinated or do not have proof of vaccination on file a week.

Have a question not covered here or in a linked resource? Email us at RRPSReentryPlans@rrps.net

Reporting Positive COVID-19 Cases

Has your child recently tested positive for COVID-19? If so, it's important to report the positive case to your child's school immediately. Doing so allows RRPS to properly contact trace and keep the entire school community safe.

To make reporting a positive COVID-19 case easy, we've created an online form which is accessible 24/7. Click the button to the right and fill in the appropriate details to report a student or staff positive COVID-19 case.

We appreciate your continued partnership as we work to keep our schools open and in operation for this school year.

Report a Positive COVID-19 Test Result for Your Child to Rio Rancho Public Schools

Cases & Quarantine Details for RRPS

In an effort to be as transparent as possible about positive COVID-19 cases within Rio Rancho Public Schools, we have created a web page which contains case and quarantine details. This page contains all of the information we are able to release and only contains positive case listings for students, staff or contractors on our campuses during their infectious period. The listing is updated regularly as new cases are confirmed. Each line represents a separate positive case. School abbreviations are as follows:

RRDO - District Office
TRANS - Transportation Office
SSPS - Shining Stars Preschool
CAE - Cielo Azul Elementary School
CDNE - Colinas del Norte Elementary School
EHE - Enchanted Hills Elementary School
ESE - Ernest Stapleton Elementary School
JHES - Joe Harris Elementary School
MCE - Maggie Cordova Elementary School
MLK - Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary School
PDSE - Puesta del Sol Elementary School
RRE - Rio Rancho Elementary School
SVE - Sandia Vista Elementary School
VGE - Vista Grande Elementary School
ERMS - Eagle Ridge Middle School
LMS - Lincoln Middle School
MVMS - Mountain View Middle School
RRMS - Rio Rancho Middle School
CHS - V. Sue Cleveland High School
RRHS - Rio Rancho High School
IHS - Independence High School
RRCA - Rio Rancho Cyber Academy
SPRK - SpaRRk Academy
SLC/CTE - Secondary Learning Center/Career Technical Education
DP - Desert Pathways
SSC - Student Support Center

View Current COVID-19 Cases & Quarantines

Temporary Changes to Meal Offerings at the High Schools

Rio Rancho Public Schools would like to inform you about some temporary challenges our food service vendor, Southwest Foodservice Excellence (SFE), is currently facing. These challenges are not impacting the high quality of food we are providing, but they are temporarily impacting some of our service methods and menus at the schools.

As you may have heard on the news or experienced in your own daily life, our country’s food supply chain has been dramatically impacted by shortages in both labor and products. Unfortunately, K-12 child nutrition hasn’t been immune to this impact. At this time, SFE is experiencing issues with staffing and food supply. While many of these issues, such as product availability are out of SFE’s control, RRPS is assisting SFE to implement some mitigation strategies so they may continue to provide our students with great meals every day.

Please be advised that your child may experience last minute menu changes at our schools. All school menu options will still meet all nutritional requirements and will be locally sourced whenever possible, but they may be slightly different selections than posted on our website. In addition, at the high school level, SFE will temporarily close the coffee bars and other ancillary food service lines so they may concentrate their staff and products on the main food service line which offers approximately seven menu choices per day.

In addition, as a reminder, all school meals are free this year. The free meals are served by SFE in our school cafeterias and our grab-n-go pick up locations for virtual students. Please note that the food and snack bars operated by DECA or other school groups do not offer free meals, as their services are intended for fundraising purposes.

We appreciate your patience and understanding as SFE and our nation work through these temporary supply chain and labor shortages.

Learn more about student meal requirements and services by watching the recording of the Aug. 19 Parent University.

Watch the Parent University Food Services Class from Aug. 19

Rio Rancho Public Schools

500 Laser Rd NE

Rio Rancho, NM 87124

www.rrps.net

School Reentry Web Page

COVID-19 Cases & Quarantines

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