Dear Los Altos School District Families, 

I want to update you on new restrictions and recommendations from state and local public health officials related to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.  With the upcoming Thanksgiving and winter breaks, it’s essential we heed these warnings to keep our community safe and our schools open.

Santa Clara County to Purple Tier
Due to a dramatic increase in cases in Santa Clara County, Governor Newsom announced the state is moving our county back to the most restrictive, Purple Tier, on Tuesday, November 17. With the fall back into the Purple Tier, the county and state will reinstate many restrictions, including the closure of indoor dining and new limits on other high risk activities, to prevent the further spread of illness.   You can read the full press release from Santa Clara County here and the state here. 

Impacts to Our Schools 
Now that our schools have already started to reopen, our students can continue to return to our campuses in our phased approach despite Santa Clara County’s move back into Purple Tier.  With all state and local health and safety measures implemented and with a strong tracking system in place, LASD is in a position to ensure we mitigate the spread of COVID-19 in all our schools.  

To that end, California has implemented a localized solution to measure the spread of illness in our schools and determine when a school or school district closure is required. In short, a school must close if 5% of the totality of its staff and students test positive in a 14-day period and a district must close if 25% of its schools close.  As always, LASD will continue to work with state and local public health experts to ensure we stay vigilant in implementing all public health requirements to keep our schools safe, healthy, and open for all students and teachers in our community. 

Update: California Issues Travel Advisory, Limits to Interactions
Santa Clara County issued guidance to local residents regarding the upcoming holiday season, safer celebrations and a recommendation to quarantine for 14-days after travel. Likewise, the State of California issued a Travel Advisory urging residents to stay home or in their region and avoid travel to other states or countries.  The Advisory urged anyone arriving in California from other states or countries, including returning residents, to quarantine for 14 days after arrival.  It is important to recognize travel alone is not the high-risk behavior to avoid. The high-risk behavior is mixing one household with another, even for just an evening. California urged residents to limit their interactions to people in their own household only. 

Doing Our Part to Prevent the Spread
Wearing masks, staying physically distanced and regularly washing your hands are key preventative measures to stay safe and healthy.  As a school community dedicated to our children’s success, we know the best place for many of our students to learn is on our campuses.  To keep our schools open, please take the time to review and acquaint yourself with our Community Expectations for Healthy Schools.  Whether your child is in Virtual School or our Blended Learning program, all of us must adhere to these guidelines to prevent the spread of illness. 

While this Thanksgiving will be like none other we’ve ever experienced, I hope you are able to enjoy a safe celebration.  I’m grateful to all of you for your commitment to our schools and our community’s health.

Sincerely, 

Jeffrey Baier
Superintendent
Los Altos School District
 

Dear LASD Community, 

Yesterday, we welcomed our first cohorts of TK-1st Graders back to campus! It was a wonderful day of learning as students and teachers greeted each other in their classrooms. With TK-1st graders and SDC students on campus again, we offer a huge thank you to our amazing teachers and staff for their hard work in this amazing endeavor.

While we're very pleased with this milestone, there are a number of challenges that come with implementing complex health and safety measures to help prevent the spread of illness and keep our entire community healthy.  We appreciate everyone’s attention to and cooperation with the LASD Community Expectations for Healthy Schools. 

Revised Reopening Schedule
We have always believed that a slow and measured approach to bringing students back to school for in-person learning will give us the best chance for a sustained reopening and continuity of instruction for all of our students. For that reason, and now that we better understand the logistics required as we return students to campus, we have revised our reopening schedule for the rest of the grade levels. Each returning group of students will continue to have at least a three-week separation of return dates to ensure health and safety protocols are in place and operations are running smoothly.  

We have made three important changes to the return schedule: 

1. We are shifting the return dates of the 2nd through 5th grade return back by one week to better align with the academic calendar, including the end of the first trimester and the Thanksgiving break. 
   1. Second and Third Grades will now return November 9 instead of November 2
   2. Fourth and Fifth Grades will return December 7 instead of November 30
2. We are moving the return date for 6th through 8th graders to January. The decision to delay was not taken lightly, but the instructional programs for grades 6-8 are much more complex than for our TK-5th grade students. Students in grades 6-8 have multiple teachers specializing in each subject, which is very different from the single teacher lower-elementary stable cohort model. Thus, it is taking longer than expected to determine the best way forward to ensure safety while delivering the best possible instruction. 
   1. Sixth Grade will now return January 11 instead of November 30
   2. Seventh Grade will now return January 20 instead of November 2
   3. Eighth Grade will now return January 20 instead of November 30
3. We are altering the "program switch dates." As you may recall, our prior plan allowed families to switch between the Blended and Virtual models every six weeks.  With experience we have learned that such a cadence is not sustainable for students, teachers, staff and the district office.  Under the new plan, families can change their child's program to Virtual or Blended prior to their child's grade-level return date and then on two additional "program switch dates" available to all grade levels. We believe that this reduction in frequency of program switches will provide much more stability for all teachers and students.

Please take a look at the updated table of return and notification dates below.  A reminder:  to change your child’s program to either Blended or Virtual, please email your principal by the Notification Deadline noted below.

We recognize that these changes may cause an inconvenience for our families and understand distance learning is difficult for many of our students. However, we also know that our families share our commitment to a safe return to campus with an excellent instructional program to continue our students' success.

As we continue to move forward, our principals and I will provide additional information on the detailed plans for our 6th-8th grade students, including a presentation to the Board of Trustees at its meeting on Monday, November 9th. We will also plan to hold Parent and Staff Town Halls to answer questions and concerns before the Thanksgiving Break (tentatively, the week of November 16). Please stay tuned for more information. 

Thank you as always for your partnership. If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to email me at jbaier@lasdschools.org.

Sincerely, 
Jeffrey Baier
Superintendent
Los Altos School District

Dear Los Altos School District Community,

As a school community, parents, staff and students are guided by core values rooted in respect for one another.  This shared sense of commitment to one another’s safety, health and well-being is one of the reasons why our schools are wonderful places to teach and learn.

In the midst of this pandemic, we all must take these core values just one step further, with a consistent mindset to prevent the spread of illness.  We must think more deeply about our own health and its effect on others because our individual actions and decisions will make a huge difference and help us minimize the risk of illness for all the members of our community. While it is very likely there will be isolated COVID cases in our community, by strictly adhering to all state and local regulations we will help prevent the further spread of illness.

As we resume in-person school, we ask all community members, including those who are not physically returning to campus, to commit to the Los Altos School District Community Expectations for Healthy Schools.  Please carefully review these expectations below.

Los Altos School District 

Community Expectations for Healthy Schools

In the year ahead, we ask all community members--children, families, staff--to commit to the following:

• Limit the spread of COVID-19 by making your own health and safety, as well as the health and safety of other community members a priority.
• Abide by all policies, procedures, and orders related to COVID-19 implemented by the state, county, and school district.
• Practice good personal hygiene consistent with public health protocols, such as frequent hand washing for 20 seconds and appropriately covering coughs and sneezes.
• Conduct daily symptom checks before entering campus via the daily email and/or text you will receive from LASD. Carefully monitor symptoms of your child(ren), yourself and household members (including any individuals working in your home).
• Be more mindful and extra cautious. Do not come to campus if you or your child feel at all unwell, if you have tested positive for COVID-19, or are a close contact to someone who has tested positive for COVID-19. Stay home and isolate.  In short,  no one should come to campus if they do not feel well.
• Notify your school office immediately, if you have tested positive for COVID-19 or been exposed to someone who has tested positive.
• All adults and all TK-8th grade students will be required to wear a face covering on campus at all times, unless eating, drinking or engaging in vigorous physical activity. 
• All staff and students are strongly encouraged to receive a flu vaccination before returning to campus.
• Practice physical distancing by maintaining at least a 6-foot distance from others.
• Avoid all large gatherings and environments in which people are not wearing face coverings and not practicing physical distancing. 
• Per SCCPHD guidelines, children and youth may only participate in one after school or non-classroom cohort program at a time and may not move from one program to another more than once every three weeks.
• Abide by all current local, state and federal guidelines regarding unnecessary travel. 

Understand that to keep our campuses healthy, parents, staff and students may need to move to distance learning on short notice due to an identified COVID-19 case in the cohort or in the school. Flexibility will be required to continue our students’ education while protecting our community’s health and safety.

Our ability to keep our schools open is dependent upon all of us strictly adhering to these guidelines to prevent the spread of illness. We should all feel empowered to encourage and remind one another to abide by these guidelines. 

We look forward to welcoming students back to campus and continuing top-quality education for all students, both in our neighborhood school classrooms and LASD Virtual School.

Sincerely, 

Jeffrey Baier
Superintendent
Los Altos School District

Dear Los Altos School District Community, 

As you may have heard, yesterday Santa Clara County Public Health Department (SCCPHD) announced encouraging news regarding the County’s progress to prevent the spread of COVID-19.  Based on the new State of California color-coded reopening system, as of Tuesday this week, Santa Clara County has stayed in the “Red” Tier for 14 consecutive days.

Schools May Reopen Countywide to All Grade Levels
SCCPHD’s announcement means that all schools in Santa Clara County are eligible to reopen for in-person learning at all grade levels, with modifications based on strict adherence to all state and local guidelines. Santa Clara County has been a leader in strong public health and safety standards to prevent the spread of COVID-19, ensure robust testing capability, and provide the contact tracing needed to reopening our economy and our schools.

Family Town Hall Forum
LASD will host a Town Hall Forum on Thursday, September 24 from 7:00pm-8:30pm to provide information and answer questions regarding our phased approach to reopening our campuses for in-person learning at the TK-6th grade level.  This town hall is particularly well-timed for our TK-1st Grade families, whose students will return to campus first.  To register, please click here.

With the announcement from SCCPHD, we now know we may reopen to all grade levels and are no longer operating under the waiver (as described in my prior messages). We will host another forum in the coming weeks regarding our reopening plans for our junior high schools. Please keep an eye out for an invitation from your principal.

LASD’s Reopening Plans
LASD has been preparing for months to safely and responsibly reopen our schools with a phased and measured approach to ensure our reopening remains sustainable.  We will proceed with returning students to in-person learning on our campuses according to our Reopening and Instructional plans.  We will always strictly adhere to any changes in state or local guidelines to ensure student, staff and community safety. Please visit our Reopening and Coronavirus web pages for more information and FAQs.

Reopening Schedule
The below chart shows the schedule for students’ return to campus by grade level with the coinciding deadline to switch programs.  It is important to note our TK, Kindergarten and 1st grade students will be returning first, so the deadline to switch programs for these students is coming up on September 28.  Please notify your principal by email by the corresponding grade level deadline if you would like to change your child’s enrollment to either the Virtual School or the Blended Learning (in-person) program, which will combine two days on-campus with three days of asynchronous learning each week.

As always, we will monitor the air quality to ensure student safety and provide for proper ventilation in our classrooms to protect everyone’s health.  If necessary we will delay the start date or learn remotely on days with poor air quality.

Thoughts on Going Back to School 
As educators dedicated to the academic success and emotional well-being of every one of our students, we believe the best place for children to learn is in our classrooms.  We recognize none of us have ever experienced a classroom as we will in the coming days:  wearing masks, physically distancing ourselves, regularly washing our hands, and disinfecting our classrooms.  While it’s hard to imagine school under these circumstances, what we’ve heard from colleagues across the globe is that despite these changes in our students’ physical environment and daily routines, the joy of learning and social connectedness will endure in this new educational world.  

For those students and families who prefer to remain in a distance learning model, we will continue to provide a robust academic experience with the well-rounded curriculum for which our schools are known through LASD Virtual School.  We will build community in LASD Virtual School and protect those ties that bind us to our neighborhood school communities, too.

As we move forward together in partnership to provide an excellent education to all students despite these challenging times, I am reminded of all that we have overcome and accomplished together since our schools first had to shut their doors in March.  I am constantly inspired by all of your dedication to our children and to one another.  If you have questions as we continue to move ahead, please feel free to contact me.  I’m happy to help. 

Sincerely, 

Jeffrey Baier
Superintendent
Los Altos School District