{"id":6236,"date":"2020-03-12T16:39:02","date_gmt":"2020-03-13T00:39:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/communications.blogs.kpbsd.k12.ak.us\/?p=6236"},"modified":"2020-03-12T16:39:02","modified_gmt":"2020-03-13T00:39:02","slug":"alert-all-kpbsd-schools-will-close-to-students-march-16-20-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kpbsd.org\/schools\/comm-test\/2020\/03\/12\/alert-all-kpbsd-schools-will-close-to-students-march-16-20-2020\/","title":{"rendered":"ALERT: All KPBSD schools will close to students March 16-20, 2020"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/communications.blogs.kpbsd.k12.ak.us\/files\/2020\/03\/2020-03-12-COVID-19-closure-1024x576.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-6237\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<p>March\n12, 2020<\/p>\n\n\n<p>Dear\nKPBSD students, families, and staff,<\/p>\n\n\n<p>I\nhope your spring break has been restorative, with positive memories. Most of\nour schools have this week off, but the district leadership team has been\nmeeting to respond to the rapidly evolving COVID-19 pandemic. We are continuing\nto work closely and take direction about the COVID-19 response from the State\nDepartment of Health and Social Services (DHSS), the Department of Education\nand Early Development (DEED), Office of the Governor, and the CDC. Your safety\nin our schools is a primary concern.<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\"><strong>KPBSD will close all 42 schools to students March 16-20, 2020, to assist with social distancing, and slowing the COVID-19 infection curve in our diverse communities. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\"><strong>KPBSD staff will\nreceive an update about when to report to work by the end of the day on Friday,\nMarch 13, 2020, through district email. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n<p>CDC\nand state DHSS recommendations directly influenced this difficult decision. Additional\nupdates about the COVID-19 districtwide closure and subsequent actions will be\nsent to families and staff via SchoolMessenger. Kindly monitor the KPBSD <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kpbsd.k12.ak.us\/students_parents.aspx?id=41540\">website<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kpbsd.k12.ak.us\/communications.aspx?id=31262\">Mobile app<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/kpbsd\">Facebook<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/kpbsd\">Twitter<\/a> pages for updates. The best place to\nlearn about COVID-19 is the <a href=\"http:\/\/dhss.alaska.gov\/dph\/Epi\/id\/Pages\/COVID-19\/default.aspx\">state website<\/a>, or the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/coronavirus\/2019-nCoV\/index.html\">CDC<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n<p><strong>New<em> \u201c<\/em>Symptom-Free\u201d Schools Protocol<\/strong><strong><em><br \/>\n<\/em><\/strong>When\nschools reopen, and until the end of the school year, all KPBSD schools will\nadopt a <strong>\u201cSymptom-Free\u201d School Protocol*<\/strong> for students and staff. Children\nand staff should not be at schools or school activities if any of these\nsymptoms are present:<strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Temperature of 100 or greater<\/li><li>Cough<\/li><li>Constantly runny nose<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n<p>*Exceptions\nfor pre-existing conditions will be determined by the nurse or administrator.<br \/>\nThe Symptom Free Schools Protocol includes the school day, co-curriculars, and\nsports. <br \/>\n<br \/>\nQuestions we have received throughout the week are primarily: <em>When do students and staff stay home? How\nwill education delivery happen if schools close? What if I traveled out of\nAlaska over spring break?<\/em> In addition, our team has focused on many other\naspects of our continuity of operations plan, and keeping schools calm,\nhealthy, and a place of learning. Responses to these questions and others will\nbe posted Friday on our dedicated <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kpbsd.k12.ak.us\/students_parents.aspx?id=41540\">COVID-19 and KPBSD\nwebpage<\/a>,\nand updated as new information is available.<strong><em><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n<p>This\nis a lot of information, and we will be in close communication during this time\nof uncertainty. We urge you to do what is best for your family, and reach out\nto your school or the district with school related questions. Our communities\nare strong, and we will weather this storm.<\/p>\n\n\n<p>Sincerely,\n<br \/>\nJohn O\u2019Brien<br \/>\nSuperintendent of Schools<\/p>\n\n\n<p><strong>Links<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.kpbsd.k12.ak.us\/students_parents.aspx?id=41540\">COVID-19 and\nKPBSD<\/a> webpage<\/li><li><a href=\"http:\/\/dhss.alaska.gov\/dph\/Epi\/id\/Pages\/COVID-19\/default.aspx\">State of\nAlaska (DHSS) COVID-19<\/a> webpage<\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/coronavirus\/2019-nCoV\/index.html\">CDC Coronavirus\nDisease 2019<\/a> webpage<\/li><li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.KPBSD.org\">www.KPBSD.org<\/a><\/li><\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>March 12, 2020 Dear KPBSD students, families, and staff, I hope your spring break has been restorative, with positive memories. Most of our schools have this week off, but the &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/kpbsd.org\/schools\/comm-test\/2020\/03\/12\/alert-all-kpbsd-schools-will-close-to-students-march-16-20-2020\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;ALERT: All KPBSD schools will close to students March 16-20, 2020&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":126,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6236","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-release"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kpbsd.org\/schools\/comm-test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6236","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kpbsd.org\/schools\/comm-test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kpbsd.org\/schools\/comm-test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kpbsd.org\/schools\/comm-test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/126"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kpbsd.org\/schools\/comm-test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6236"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kpbsd.org\/schools\/comm-test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6236\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kpbsd.org\/schools\/comm-test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kpbsd.org\/schools\/comm-test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kpbsd.org\/schools\/comm-test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}