***Para leer esta carta en Español, haga clic AQUI.
August 5, 2021
Dear Crane Families,
I’m excited to welcome all of our families – new and returning – for a wonderful year of learning, exploration, and growth. Our educators and staff members have worked hard to prepare materials and lessons that will engage our students and stir their imagination. Our student service departments such as Transportation and School Nutrition are busy ensuring that our students are safe, healthy, and provided for in a variety of ways. Our Facilities and Maintenance department has worked tirelessly to keep our campuses and buildings as clean and safe as possible. We are ready for this year.
That being said, I’d be remiss to ignore that, though we have returned to in-person instruction and some semblance of normalcy compared to the 2020-21 year, we are not yet clear from the COVID-19 pandemic and everything it entails. We’ve experienced an increase in COVID-19 cases, not only in our county but also in our school communities. Like many other school districts in Arizona, we have positive cases of COVID-19 across multiple Crane school campuses. Additionally, as of this correspondence, Yuma County Health Department has confirmed that three Crane schools (Mesquite Elementary, Ronald Reagan Elementary, and Salida del Sol Elementary) are experiencing an outbreak. A school outbreak of COVID-19 is defined by the Arizona Department of Health Services as:
- Two or more laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 cases among students or staff with onsets within a 14-day period;
- Who are epidemiologically linked (i.e. a case in which the individual has had contact with one or more persons who have/had the disease);
- Do not share a household;
- Not identified as close contacts of each other in another setting during standard case investigation/contract tracing.
Please know that all impacted parties at each school – from isolated cases and as part of an outbreak – have been contacted by school administrators and staff. Therefore, if you have not received a phone call or communication of some sort from your school about possible exposure and quarantine measures, your child(ren) were not in close proximity of a person with COVID-19 exposure. As part of our district communication plan, which aims for transparency, we have sent out informational emails to sites that have a confirmed case(s). If you have not registered your email address at your school to receive district communications, please call your school’s front office to do so. Make sure to choose the language of your choice; we send out the emails in English and Spanish according to the preference you selected upon registration.
I am aware that this is not news you hoped to hear. However, we have established mitigation strategies in place (available at www.craneschools.org) to moderate the impact that the pandemic has on our school community. We prepared for this scenario, and we won’t let it damper the remarkable things we have planned for this school year. Our priority remains to provide our students with a quality education and follow protocols that will allow them and our staff members to remain as safe and healthy as possible.
Fortunately, we work as community partners – the schools and you as parents/families. While we reinforce protective protocols at school, you can have a positive influence at home. Please help us mitigate the impact of the pandemic in an effort to keep everyone healthy and safe.
RECOMMENDATIONS
- We highly encourage the usage of masks indoors when unable to maintain 6 ft. of distance. Mask usage remains optional but highly encouraged.
- Update on face masks in Arizona: On Tuesday, July 27, 2021, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) updated their guidance on the use of face masks in schools. They now recommend universal indoor face mask usage for all teachers, staff, students, and visitors to K-12 schools, regardless of vaccination status given new evidence of the B.1.617.2 variant, also known as the Delta variant.Arizona State law passed this summer does not permit school districts or charter schools to mandate mask wearing among school-age children or staff. Students and staff are required, however, to wear face masks while on school buses due to a federal public transportation law that supersedes state law (effective August 2, 2021).
- Please have your student(s) remain at home if they are feeling unwell and/or experiencing flu-like symptoms such as fever, cough, chills, headaches, congestion, etc.
- Please remind your student to inform a school staff member immediately if they are at school and begin to feel unwell.
Due to the increase in cases, we are in the process of reviewing our mitigation plan and will make adjustments, as needed. We will communicate those to you once the updates are complete.
If we learned anything last year, it was that we are resilient. Together, we can move forward while helping to ensure that our students and staff have a successful school year. Thank you.
Sincerely,
Laurie Doering
Superintendent
ENGLISH PDF version of this letter: Click HERE