COVID Update
Student vaccination rates are rising, and the rate of COVID-19 in Los Angeles County continues to decrease. This is good news and supports our primary goal of ensuring that as many students as possible are able to participate in in-person instruction for as many days as possible. We are also working to ensure safe and healthy classrooms and campuses and to approximate a normal and regular school year as much as possible, despite the Delta variant being present in our community. These are all good goals; at the same time, they will sometimes compete with each other as we implement our educational programs and daily instruction, and we must mediate the tension between them to find the right balance for our schools. We are accomplishing this by taking purposeful, coordinated and calibrated steps as we launch important co-curricular, extra-curricular and student and family engagement activities.
As an example, we are thrilled to have our many MBX after-school classes back on our campuses. In addition, school clubs - including, for instance, our Math Olympiad programs - started outdoors the week of September 13 and, absent COVID-related reasons not to, will move indoors on October 4. We will continue to bring other activities onto campuses throughout the fall. Other events taking place on our campuses include Bingo and Movie Nights - these community events are structured to include requirements for outdoor masking for all attendees, contact tracing, physical distancing and robust volunteer support to ensure that all guidelines can be met. We intend to ramp up these activities in a careful and deliberate way this fall and over the course of the school year.
We will also begin to slowly bring parents and other volunteers back on to our campuses, beginning with a very small number of vaccinated individuals in non-classroom settings, and please watch for school-specific messaging from our school principals.
Modified Quarantine
The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health has recently made available to school districts a modified quarantine program which MBUSD will implement beginning Monday, September 27. This program directly supports our goal of making sure as many students as possible are able participate in in-person instruction. Under the modified quarantine option, an unvaccinated student who is identified as being a close contact due to exposure to a confirmed COVID-19 case can continue in-person instruction at school if both the positive case and the close contact were masked during the entire period of potential exposure. The close contact must be tested periodically and must remain under quarantine at home outside of the regular school day.
Masks
The new Modified Quarantine process that helps ensure students can remain in school despite being identified as a close contact requires that a school official verify that both the case and the contact were fully masked at all times. Therefore, it is most effective when we can ensure that unvaccinated students are wearing masks both indoors and outdoors. In order to accomplish this, preschool, elementary and middle school students will continue to wear masks when outdoors on school grounds.
We also know that the rate of MBUSD students aged 12-18 who have received at least one dose of COVID vaccine has risen from 89.1% to 89.9% to 90.5% over the last three weeks. While this provides some measure of protection at MBMS, it is most significant for our students at MCHS, where all students fall within the eligible age range for COVID vaccination. Knowing that all of our Mira Costa students are old enough to receive a vaccination, mask wearing when outdoors at the high school will be strongly encouraged rather than required.
COVID Testing
We continue to work towards developing a robust COVID testing program. Beach Cities Health District is providing tests for individuals whom the District identifies as being close contacts or symptomatic of COVID. We have already implemented required testing for unvaccinated high school and middle school athletes. Next week, we will begin required testing for unvaccinated staff and will implement a voluntary testing program for any staff and students who wish to participate.
COVID and Flu Vaccinations
We strongly encourage any eligible student, family member and staff to get vaccinated against COVID.
It is also flu season, and the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health recommends that everyone six months and older should be immunized for flu, including healthy children and healthy adults. You can find out how to obtain a free or low-cost flu shot here.
Let’s all continue to support our community, schools and one another.
Sincerely,
