Important End of Week Two Health & Safety Updates

September 3, 2021
 
Breakthrough Families,
 
It has been wonderful to see all of our scholars back in our buildings over the past two weeks!  There is so much positive energy as everyone gets to know their teachers and connects/reconnects with friends.
 
We have been working hard to implement all of our health and safety protocols with fidelity and have already learned a lot about what works and where we can improve.  As we prepare for the 3rd week of school, I wanted to share a few key updates and reminders, as well as an exciting update about our partnership with Arizona State University Prep Digital to provide high-quality learning experiences for our students who are out of school on quarantine.

Health and Safety Reminders

  • Masking: Our teachers and staff are being intentional about reinforcing correct (cover your nose!) and consistent mask wearing for all scholars throughout the day.  Please also reinforce this important message at home! While we have disposable masks available for scholars, if your scholar has a mask that fits correctly and that they are comfortable wearing, please send that with them to school.  In addition, please note that neck gaiters are not considered an effective mask and should not be worn.  If a scholar comes to school wearing a neck gaiter they will be asked to replace it with a disposable mask.

 

  • Reporting Symptoms, Exposure, and Positive Tests: We are seeing strong adherence to our reporting processes, which is going a long way towards enabling us to respond quickly when any staff member or scholar has potential symptoms of, is exposed to, or tests positive for COVID-19. As a reminder, if you have any questions about symptoms or exposure please call the Breakthrough COVID hotline at 216-302-0624 between 5:45-7:45am or 4:30-6:30pm to speak to an on-call nurse.If any member of your scholar’s immediate household is experiencing symptoms of COVID-19 and awaiting test results, we ask that you please complete the reporting form and keep your scholar(s) home until those test results are available.
     
    The form can be found here.

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  • Community Risk: At the current levels of community spread we are seeing, the choices we all make outside of school are just as important as the choices we make while at school.  We can all help keep each other and our scholars safe by continuing to adhere to COVID-19 best practices (including getting vaccinated, masking while indoors around those not in your household, and socializing outdoors as much as possible) and avoiding unnecessary risk.  This is particularly important if your scholar is participating in organized sports or other activities outside of school.

Partnership with ASUPD

We are very excited to share that we are partnering with Arizona State University Prep Digital (ASUPD) to provide high quality learning opportunities for our scholars who are required to stay home from school as a result of COVID-19 quarantine.  ASUPD is an expert in virtual learning and the program they have designed specifically for Breakthrough will provide a combination of live and self-directed Math and ELA instruction to quarantined scholars that is aligned with what is being taught in our classrooms.  This program will be kicking off next week and you can find much more information here.

As always, thank you for your partnership and continued commitment to keeping our community safe.  We’ve learned a lot over the past few weeks, and will continue to learn and refine in the weeks to come.  If you have any questions, concerns, or suggestions please don’t hesitate to reach out to me or your scholar’s principal or teacher.

With gratitude,
Tyler Thornton
Chief Operating Officer, Breakthrough Public Schools