Dear Bishop Kelly Parents,
As most of you are aware, on Tuesday, July 27th, the CDC announced that they are recommending the use of universal masking by all individuals in a K-12 facility, not just those who are unvaccinated, in areas with substantial or high coronavirus transmission rates, which Ada and Canyon counties are seeing. This came after they have seen cases increase significantly in every state with the Delta variant and new evidence that the virus can be transmitted by vaccinated people due to the higher viral loads of the Delta variant.
We had planned to begin school on August 16th with a “masks optional policy” due to the low number of COVID-19 cases in our area and the effectiveness and uptake of the COVID-19 vaccines in our BK community. The CDC had also stated earlier this month that vaccinated people did not need to wear masks indoors since they were protected and not likely to carry the virus and infect others.
Given the science and data forthcoming, we cannot just sit back and do exactly what we had planned two months ago. However, we do not believe we should implement universal masking in our school at this time and will keep masks optional. We have shown in the past year that we can successfully provide a safe environment for in person learning when we develop an effective operational plan, make the needed investments, and come together as a community to execute the plan - in spite of whatever prevailing CDC/CDH guidance exists.
Thus, here is our masking policy to start the 2021-22 school year:
- Our instructional model will be on-campus learning in a face to face model. All students on campus all day every day.
- We will not require masks for any students or staff to start the school year. They will be optional. However, masks will be strongly recommended for non-vaccinated students and staff while indoors and encouraged for vaccinated students and staff while indoors.
- We recognize that parents are the primary educators of their own children and therefore wish to support personal choice whenever possible. However, please keep in mind that the overall health and safety of our entire student body, faculty and staff must remain a top priority in our decision making.
- While masks are not required, we ask that everyone respect the rights of those students and staff who choose to wear a mask or to not wear a mask.
- Students, teachers, and staff must stay home when they have signs of any infectious illness, fever, cold, etc. and be referred to their healthcare provider for possible testing and care.
- Our small class sizes will accommodate 3 feet spacing between students within classrooms and we will continue to use The Reg for music, the Music Room for speech, and the Multi-Purpose Room for a classroom.
- Our plan must remain flexible and adapt to changing circumstances. For instance, we will be evaluating what to do for large indoor gatherings of students and staff and how to manage hallway traffic and gatherings with lockers back this year.
We will monitor community transmission, vaccination coverage, screening testing, Governor Little’s recommendations, and any cases and/or outbreaks here at BK throughout the year. Should we have outbreaks here at BK or see the 4th wave of infections here in Idaho predicted by many, we will look at implementing further mitigation factors, such as mandatory masking while indoors for students and staff or remote learning for a period of time if necessary.
One final note - we continue to strongly encourage families to have their children vaccinated. Our estimates are that our staff is at ~ 90% vaccinated and our students between ~ 60% and 70% per our parent survey in May. The more students and staff we have vaccinated, the safer our students and staff will be and we will increase the probability of achieving herd immunity here at BK and keeping masks optional for the year.
We will go into our Bishop Kelly 2021-22 Instructional and Operational Plan in more detail at our Virtual Town Hall on Wednesday, August 11th, at 6:00 pm on our BK YouTube channel. But given the amount of questions we have been receiving, we felt it important to get this information out to you as quickly as we could.
Enjoy these last few weeks of summer before school begins and we look forward to welcoming you in mid-August back to school!
God bless,
Rich and Mike
