As a school community, we have all worked together to stop the spread of COVID-19 and protect one another. We truly appreciate your ongoing support as the faculty, staff, and I continue to monitor the rate of transmission in our community as well as other variables such as the roll out of vaccines and the presence of the three new variants. The rate of transmission in King County is 5.7 (average over the past 14 days), which is considered to be moderate). 821,781 vaccine doses have been given in King County, and people in Phase 1B, Tier 2, which includes high-risk critical workers as well as people with disabilities, are now eligible. As our state moves into Phase 3 of the “Healthy Washington: Roadmap to Recovery” plan on March 22nd, more people will be resuming activities they enjoy. (Click on links for sources).
On March 15th Governor Inslee announced his Emergency Proclamation 21-05 “Children and Youth Mental Health Crisis” stating that every K-12 student must have the opportunity for on-site learning. (Click on link for source).
With the trend in case rate, the increased availability of the vaccine, and other variables, I am pleased to announce that New Horizon School will offer on-campus, in-person instruction in the Hybrid Model beginning April 20th. We know that in-person instruction is critical, and we are excited to welcome your children back to the school. Rest assured that we will implement all CDC guidelines for schools and continue to monitor the ongoing risk of transmission as the pandemic continues. For those parents and students who are out of state or choosing to remain online, we will still have that option available.
We’ve distributed two family surveys recently, one to determine how many families would opt for sending their students back to school part-time in the Hybrid Model, and a second to determine each family’s level of commitment to the learning model they plan to select as well as preferences, questions, and concerns. Thank you to all who completed the survey, helping us to make our final decisions and plans.
Based on survey results, almost 66% of NHS families plan to send their students to campus in the Hybrid Model, 23% plan to have their students continue in remote learning, and 11% are unsure at this time.
Masks, Bottled Water, and Lunches: To clarify, NHS will provide cloth masks to all staff, faculty, and students daily. The masks will be professionally laundered each night and replaced with freshly laundered masks daily. Parents may opt out of having their student using the provided mask and instead send another CDC approved mask to school daily with their student if they wish. NHS will purchase and provide sealed, individual, bottles of water to all staff, faculty, and students daily at no cost to them. NHS will purchase and provide catered, individually wrapped, boxed lunches to all staff, faculty, and students daily at no cost to them. Parents may opt out of having their student eat the provided lunch and instead send an individual lunch with their student each day if they wish.
Please see the information below for additional information about the NHS Hybrid Model. Feel free to email me with any questions or concerns.
Sincerely,
Marla L. Veliz
Marla Veliz
Administrator