Director Update
Greetings Madrone Trail Community,
I sincerely hope everyone had a pleasant and safe break with their families for the holidays. Welcome to 2022, which I also sincerely hope will be better than 2020 and 2021.
Ever since I moved to Oregon from South Carolina almost 20 years ago, I was always tricked for 2-3 weeks in January with what I now term a pseudo-Spring. It will get brighter and warmer to the point that flowers and tree buds will bloom and then, just like that, back to frigid winter until the true start of Spring in March. In other words, please remember to send your child to school with the proper attire in which to stay warm and dry.
Although I tried to avoid the news over the break, we all know that the Omicron COVID-19 variant is surging, with 1 million cases daily cases reported just this week. If each person infected only one other person, the whole country will be exposed in less than one year. But, that time period is way off as one person tends to expose many others before they even know they are infected. Bottom line, I am expecting more cases in our community, which in turn will mean more isolations and quarantines for our students and staff. We have been very, very fortunate thus far this school year in that we have been able to always find enough subs and stay in person. The next month will test this fortune for sure. We all need to stay vigilant and careful. We have a cushion to prevent moving back to online, but that cushion evaporates if we have over 5 teachers isolating. I am not trying to be an alarmist, but I want the community to know there will be a point where we may not have enough teaching staff to safely remain in person for all grade levels at the same time. Despite this variant being much milder and the majority of our staff vaccinated, meaning less time required to isolate if positive, we do not determine these time periods, the Oregon Health Authority does and we must abide. My wife returned to work on Monday and had all the symptoms by Thursday morning. We have all been tested and are awaiting results. I feel fine, but if it is COVID my wife has, I will most likely start showing symptoms 3-5 days after her onset.
Please do not send your child to school if they are exhibiting ANY symptoms or there is someone in the house that is currently positive and isolating. Please help us by being extra cautious at home. Taking a quick temperature before leaving the house will help us all stay safe.
The four most common colds children get are Corona viruses, they just aren’t novel and have been around for a while. COVID-19 will evolve like all viruses and either get worse and go away by killing its hosts or stick around forever by evolving to be less deadly. This seems to be the path we are on and COVID-19 will become endemic. However, there is a silver lining to this in that it means it won’t be so deadly and cause such a disruption in our lives. I know I have said a lot, but the point I am trying to make is that I am very optimistic that we are truly in the home stretch. Barring a new more deadly variant emerging, 2022 could be the end of this deadly pandemic and full return to normalcy!
In summation, I hope this New Year is the happiest we have all had in a long time!
~John Bissey
DIrector
