April 2, 2021
Dear RSU 71 Students, Staff, School Board, and Community Partners,
It has been an eventful week! This update will be shared with staff and the school board at noon and Robo-sent to families at 2:00 pm.
Pandemic Update - RSU 71 and Waldo County are still classified as safe for Green/In-Person instruction by the CDC and DOE. As I wrote to you earlier this week, there was a third positive case of the coronavirus at Belfast Area High in March, which qualifies as an "outbreak." This designation did not require us to move to the Red/Remote mode of our reopening plan; this plan was put together by our Safely Reopening Task Force this past spring and summer. There is no evidence of transmission in any of our schools. Each of the positive cases contracted the disease outside of the school and school-sponsored events. We expect to be cleared of this outbreak status on April 10. Yesterday's meeting of our school nurse and administrative teams with the Maine Center for Disease Control went very well.
Emergency Rental Assistance - Maine Housing and Maine's Community Action Agencies are now accepting applications for the Emergency Rental Assistance Program. This program helps to pay rent and utility costs for eligible renters affected by COVD-19. The application link can be found in the link below.
Vaccines are Available for all Mainers ages 16 and Older - Beginning of April 7, vaccines to immunize against the coronavirus will be available. Click on the link below for more information.
Mainers 16 and older will become eligible for COVID-19 vaccine on April 7
RSU 71 Staff Members at THMS - Almost all teachers, support staff members, and administrators choose to be vaccinated. Dozens of Troy Howard Middle staff members are being vaccinated throughout Thursday, April 8, and Thursday, April 9. Therefore we need to move to the Red/Remote mode of learning for those two days; this is because we don't have enough staff members and substitutes to cover the classes of all the staff who will be out.
Travel - Please be sure to inform our school nurses if you plan to travel during this weekend's holiday or the April vacation, which begins on April 19. Here below are the latest travel guidelines and restrictions.
https://www.maine.gov/covid19/keepmainehealthy/faqs
As always, please feel free to be in touch with me and our nurses and administrators with questions about the coronavirus or anything else. Warm wishes for a beautiful holiday weekend! It feels so good to see grass greening up and crocuses popping out everywhere!
Sincerely Yours,
Mary Alice
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