CAUSE ADVISORY
Returning Amidst a COVID Surge; Omicron Variant
What is CUSD Doing to Protect Employees, Students, and their Families?
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Dear CUSD Colleagues, Students, and Families:
As of this Monday, January 3, 2022, neither parents or staff have been advised of the CUSD’s plans to adjust and/or increase its COVID mitigation efforts or actions (i.e. associated with the current OMICRON surge and increased rate of transmission.)
Districts across the region have invested much time and effort repositioning for the current surge. Several have announced clear and proactive modifications to their COVID protocols, designed to ensure the SAFETY of students, staff, and District families.
But here in CUSD, we’ve heard no such thing.
And this time, the CUSD’s inaction is clearly not about either a lack of money or time to prepare; two conditions that District leadership routinely allege.
On December 22, 2021, California’s Governor, Gavin Newsom, announced new actions to protect our community from COVID-19:
* At-home test kits to be distributed statewide for students returning to public school
* Hours to be extended at testing sites with increased demand
* State to require health care workers to get boosters by February 1, 2022
Here’s a link to the announcement, with more detail therein.
Beyond reminding unvaccinated employees of previous expectations to test, Union leadership asks the CUSD to clarify the proactive modifications it is making to its COVID response. We ask that this is done prior to reopening the CUSD in the midst of the most recent surge.
When and where will these State funded test-kits be distributed to students and employees?
If the CUSD chooses not to engage in this recommended action, what justification or rationale does it provide the thousands of Carpinterian families who will be at increased risk as of January 6, 2022; when students and employees return to in-person instruction?
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