The following is a January 24 message from Culver City Unified School District Superintendent Quoc Tran in relation to schools returning to session after being closed for a week due to surging COVID-19 cases.
Dear CCUSD Community,
I want to thank you for your understanding, patience and cooperation as we made the difficult decision to cancel school for the remainder of this week. We realize that having your children home from school so unexpectedly undoubtedly caused hardship for many families. However, given the rapid rise in positive Covid-19 cases in Los Angeles County, and among our students, faculty and staff, we believe this short-term closure was the most prudent thing to do.
CCUSD’s top priority remains the same as it has been since the beginning of the school year in August 2021: To create and maintain a safe in-person learning and teaching environment for all.There was some urgency behind our decision:
- Prior to winter break, CCUSD averaged .36 new Covid-19 cases each calendar day (i.e., a new case was confirmed every three days);
- As schools resumed after winter break, CCUSD’s daily average accelerated to 52+ new confirmed Covid-19 cases each day, an increase of 144 times over the pre-holiday rate.
We continued to receive new positive case results with every testing day. For the most current breakdown of positive cases by school site, check the CCUSD COVID-19 Dashboard.
CCUSD chose to address the fast-rising caseload by:
- Increasing pupil-free time by extending the number of days away from school to include this Wednesday, Thursday and Friday (01/19-01/21/2022), in addition to the previously scheduled days off of Monday and Tuesday (01/17 and 01/18). This allowed for all staff and students, regardless of vaccination status, to get tested before returning to school. Testing is conducted via LFN drive-through events and at-home testing kits provided to students and staff;
- Requiring a negative Covid-19 test result from each individual student and staff member before they return to school on Monday, January 24, 2022.
- Requiring that students who are not yet registered for testing get registered. If your child is not signed up for weekly testing, please do so ASAP here.
- Pursuing 100% weekly district-wide Covid-19 testing, once school resumes in person.
We also continue to subscribe fervently to the belief that learning in-person is the best option for the majority of our students, both from a social-emotional as well as an educational perspective. To reiterate, our top priority is to create and maintain a safe in-person learning and teaching environment for all.
When school does resume in person on Monday, we will continue with the following safety protocols:
- Weekly testing. We may increase this to bi-weekly as testing capacity allows.
- Wearing medical grade masks (KF94/N95) for everyone at every school site, except when actively eating or drinking.
- Mandatory COVID-19 vaccinations for all staff and students (ages 12 and above), including recommending booster shots for everyone who is age-eligible. We also HIGHLY recommend that students age 5-11 also get vaccinated, now that they are eligible.
As I shared above, a negative test result will be mandatory before each student and staff member can return to in–person instruction on Monday, January 24. We held drive-thru testing events this week. If you were not able to get tested then, you can submit results of at-home test kits taken within 24 hours of January 24, or test results from another provider such as a healthcare clinic, also taken within 24 hours of January 24, 2022. Submit the results to your school site.
If you chose to use an at-home Covid-19 test kit or get tested at a healthcare clinic not affiliated with CCUSD, please email your child’s test results to your school site:
- Culver City High School: c19-highschool@ccusd.org
- Culver City Middle School: See instructions included with test kit
- Linwood E. Howe: c19-linhowe@ccusd.org
- El Rincon: c19-elrincon@ccusd.org
- El Marino: c19-elmarino@ccusd.org
- Farragut: c19-farragut@ccusd.org
- La Ballona: c19-laballona@ccusd.org
CCUSD will continue to provide you with frequent updates on CCUSD’s testing schedules, Covid-19 case numbers, and the logistics for returning to and maintaining in-person schooling as safely as possible. We will share information on the district website, via social media, through the weekly Culver Pride e-newsletter, and through additional emails dedicated to the district’s Covid-19 status.
Thank you again for your understanding, cooperation and patience. We will continue to monitor, manage and mitigate Covid-19 within our school community. Stay healthy and safe. We will get through this together.
Once again, if your child is not yet registered for the weekly testing, please enroll them ASAP via CCUSD COVID-19 Test Registration (https://hipaa.jotform.com/LivingFit/CCUSD). Weekly testing is required in order for your child to remain in school.
Respectfully,
Quoc Tran, Superintendent
