RECAP: SFUSD & UCSF Virtual Town Hall on Health & Safety for School Reopening
This past week SFUSD and UCSF jointly hosted three town halls about health and safety during school reopening. We attended the town hall on Tuesday and will give a recap of what we learned. To view the English Virtual Town Hall recording, click here. To view the Spanish Virtual Town Hall recording, click here. To view the Chinese Virtual Town Hall, click here.
SFUSD Board of Education President, Gabriela Lopez, opened the town hall thanking everyone who took the time to attend and also acknowledged that there would be some questions that there are not answers to at this time. Then Superintendent Matthews shared the agenda:
Updates about Covid-19 and public health information from UCSF
Covid-19 health and safety protocols in schools
Full transition back to in-person learning
Updates About Covid-19 and Public Health Information from UCSF. We heard from Dr. Elizabeth Rogers, who is a pediatrician and mother of four, here were the key takeaways:
Image Credit: San Francisco Unified School District.
General Information:
In-person learning can and will be done safely
The most important safety step we can take is getting all community members, who are eligible, vaccinated. Find a vaccine site near you, by clicking here. Want to hear about a PPS-SF staff members Covid-19 vaccine experience, check out her blog post here.
Things will continue to change and you will be updated as these changes come.
Cases are dramatically dropping in the United States, specifically in San Francisco
There are still inequities with who gets Covid-19
Vaccines are available for anyone over 12 years of age
Masks work and help stop the spread of Covid-19
Variants - The definition of a variant is a virus that can change to adapt to its environment. Covid-19 has multiple variants.
There are six known variants in the US, the current vaccines available are effective against all known variants.
There is a lot of talk about the delta variant, learn more about it at this podcast, but current vaccines do work against it.
In school settings, during Covid-19 surges, there was very little school-based passing of the virus between people, and when it happened, it came from adults.
Adults being vaccinated protect the children in the environment, so vaccinated adults will protect kids in the environment from the delta variant.
Vaccines
There are three approved vaccines in the US: Janssen (Johnson & Johnson), Moderna, and Pfizer/BioNTech. Everyone one of these vaccines is effective against Covid-19.
This is an mRNA virus, but it does not interact with your DNA.
Some people have perceived these vaccines as coming out quickly, but the technology of this vaccine has been studied for the past 30 years.
Image Credit: San Francisco Unified School District.
Vaccine Side Effects in Children
There have been a few reports about myocarditis, which is inflammation of the heart, but this is truly one in a million and is extremely rare. There are actually higher rates of myocarditis happening
Covid-19 health and safety protocols in schools; we heard from Superintendent Matthews, Chief of Student Services Mele Lau-Smith, and Board of Education President Lopez.
General Information
Get vaccinated! If you get vaccinated this week, you will be fully vaccinated by the first week of school. To find vaccine sites near you, click here.
There are vaccination sites in the Bayview, Vis Valley, the Mission, and Burton Clinic. The Burton Clinic is open every Wednesday and Thursday from 3:30-7:30 at Burton High School. No appointment is necessary for any of these sites.
What will school look like when families return?
Fully open and look a lot like December 2019 but with masks for all staff and all students
All school staff and students will be expected to self screen for Covid-19 before coming to school everyday. If your child answers yes to any of the self screening questions they will have to stay home.
Every classroom or multiple person office has at least one of the following: open windows, portable air cleaner, and mechanical ventilation.
Before and after school programs will be operating in the fall. There are three different types of programs:
Excel, this is usually for students who qualify for free & reduced lunch but there are monthly fees. The best way to get info on Excel programs is to contact them directly.
Early education out of school time programs: Run by the early education program and sliding scale for tuition paying families. The best way to get info on this program is to contact them directly.
Community orgs and private groups: at some school sites, SFUSD does not manage or fund these. Talk to your schools principal to learn more about these.
Image Credit: San Francisco Unified School District.
Transition Back to In-Person
Practicing healthy habits will help when school starts. Some things to practice with the student in your life are mask wearing, alternatives to hugs, alternatives to high-fives, and hand washing.
Going back to school in a non-pandemic can also be stressful for students. Prepare for the first day by practicing back-to-school routines like picking out an outfit and mask or practicing waking up for the first day of school.
Make a schedule for the first week back to school for you and your student so there is predictability and they know what to expect.
Patience. Any transition is difficult, show patience for your student and for yourself. Some potential ideas for showing patience are: practicing mindfulness through deep breathes, pausing before responding to your student, and talking through emotions.
Mental Health and School Climate Resources
There is a coordinated care team at each school site
CalHope has many resources including a warm line for those who are struggling with stress, anxiety, and depression. The CalHope warm line number is 833-317-4673.
Celebrate the wins!
Where to Get More Information
A summer mailer will be going out, update your address if needed in ParentVue.
You can find more information at sfusd.edu/returnsafely or at the Student and Family Resource Link number 415-340-1716
You can also use SFUSD social media channels to find out more information. Here is their Facebook and their twitter account.
We then moved into the question and answer session, which answered both questions that were asked ahead of time and in the live question & answer area of Zoom.
Question: People have heard a lot about the delta variant, for families with younger children who are not eligible for the vaccine and are nervous about school come the fall, could you share some of the research and sources that help families assess risk? And what transmission at school would mean?
Answer: The natural history of a virus is that there will always be variants, the important thing is that it spreads in the same way that COVID, the original virus, initially spread which is through air born droplets. People should continue to use the same mitigative practices they have been using like masking and vaccinating anyone who is eligible. For those who are not yet eligible, the community around them getting vaccinated is what will protect those who cannot get the vaccine yet.
Question: Some communities are hesitant to get the vaccine, why not wait until it is approved by the FDA? Why is there urgency to get it now?
Answer: There is distrust for valid reasons in medicine and public health. We have to support communities where they are, while also explaining the efficacy of the vaccine. The vaccine was approved through the emergency youth authorization because it was the faster way to get the vaccine into regular use but it was not rushed, it still went through the same standards as any other vaccine or medication. Dr. Elizabeth Rogers is very confident in the safety of the vaccine, in its efficacy, and it is the most effective way to stop the transmission of the virus.
Question: The risk of side effects for children who get the vaccine are low correct?
Answer: Children might have side effects, they might feel under the weather for a day or two but that is evidence of the vaccine working.
Image Credit: SF.gov
Question: Can you talk a bit about where people can learn more about vaccines or find a vaccination site that works best for them?
Answer: Big shout out to the department of Public Health in San Francisco, they have really taken on the task of getting that information out to people. If you go to this website, there is a variety of vaccine information in multiple languages. You can find a vaccination site through this website, or you can find community Covid vaccine events here.
Question: Students will be required to wear masks come the fall, what does this mean for children who might not be able to wear a mask all day?
Answer: Likely students will not have to wear masks outdoors so there will be a break during recess. In the spring, school sites worked with students who could not wear a mask for medical reasons. If a child cannot wear a mask for medical reasons, then they do not have to wear a mask. The fact that everyone around them will be wearing a mask, will be protecting that child. Children have been wearing masks for a year and half now and they have really caught on to the importance of it. There were not issues with mask wearing this past spring so not expecting too many for this fall.
Question: As we go into another wild fire season, is ventilation a big part of Covid mitigation efforts? What are some steps put in place if there is bad air quality during wild fire season?
Answer: Superintendent Matthews believes that students are safest when they are in school, schools did have to close for one day because of air quality the fire season before the pandemic, but this is always a last resort. There will be some ventilation measures in place in some spots but not everywhere. As schools come back to session, a plan will be developed for potential distanced learning fire days.
Question: As we approach this turning point in the pandemic, what are some recommended approaches to surveillance testing at this point in the pandemic?
Answer: Looking at all of the information we have, when the community prevalence of the virus is so low, which fortunately our prevalence in San Francisco has been low recently, you can start getting false positives. For that reason, there does not have to be a lot of asymptomatic surveillance testing at this time. If you are symptomatic, you should get tested.
Question: Why do we no longer need to enforce social and/or physical distancing now?
Answer: In terms of vaccinations, if you have a room full of people and all of those people are vaccinated, the main form of risk mitigation is the vaccine. Over the past year and a half, school studies have shown that in-person learning is very safe. These studies found that six feet of distance in between people was not required and three feet was not even required. The thing that made the major difference in transmission of the virus was mask wearing. There was some transmission in SFUSD schools but it was minimal and when people were not wearing masks properly.
Our host for the evening, Hong Mei Pang, then asked each panelist for one recommendation for going into the fall semester…
Dr. Matthews: Get vaccinated, the way we take care of each other, is to get vaccinated. Dr. Matthews was watching his Sunday morning news program and learned that for the month of June 10,000 people died because of Covid, and of those people, 99.2% were not vaccinated. If you want to be back to normal, then let’s get vaccinated.
President Lopez: I agree with Dr. Matthews and added to be patient with this adjustment. Be patient with your student, with educators, and with yourself.
Chief Lau Smith: Those are both great recommendations, and also added to wear a mask. Grace, compassion, and patience will be key.
Dr. Elizabeth Rogers: Humility is important, being humble and approach each new situation as a learning opportunity.
Things to be aware of going forward:
Unanswered questions from the town halls will be used for the frequently asked questions section of SFUSD’s website. Click here for Covid related frequently asked questions and answers from SFUSD.
Everyone will be receiving a mailer in the beginning of August with updated Covid information in all seven SFUSD languages.
Update your contact information in ParentVue so you continue to get updated information. You can update ParentVue by clicking here.
Also update and submit your emergency contact card, this must be updated and submitted every school year. To learn more about updating your emergency contact card, click here.
If you are looking for the Virtual Spanish Town Hall on Health and Safety during School Reopening recording, click here.
If you are looking for the Virtual Chinese Town Hall on Health and Safety during School Reopening recording, click here.