Happy Friday everyone! Things are moving quickly and we are reacting on the fly. Thank you to everyone who has been getting a phone call from us and letting you know that your student is either positive for Covid or a close contact. Your support has been overwhelming! Just a few items on the docket today.
No School Monday, January 17th for observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
NEW *UPDATE ON PCR Testing SCHEDULED FOR TODAY*
Due to a shortage of supply kits regionally and the shortened school day today, the district did not receive the number of test kits needed for all participants.
If your student received their kit and brought it home today, please have your child return the kit to school on Tuesday for testing.
If your student did not receive their kit today, kits will be sent home on Tuesday and should be returned to school on Wednesday. Specimens will be picked up on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday of next week.
Thank you for your patience as our vendor O’Hare Labs works to expand its capacity to meet additional testing requests. District 96 is one of many entities that has asked to increase their PCR testing frequency. As a result, O’Hare Labs is working diligently to accommodate the unprecedented increase in the demand for testing. The typical timeline is 48 hours, however, nearly all PCR labs are seeing a spike in specimen testing requests. Therefore, the delayed delivery of results that we are experiencing is due to this spike in the demand for specimen testing. O'Hare Labs has added an additional lab this week, so we are hoping to see a faster turnaround time very soon.
Finally, as a reminder, O’Hare Labs is your point of contact regarding specimen questions for individual student lab results.
If you have any questions regarding your results (e.g. you haven’t received your results) feel free to contact O’Hare Labs by email at [email protected]
NEW *UPDATE ON NEW ISOLATION, QUARANTING, AND TEST-TO-STAY PROTOCOLS
As we shared last week, new Covid-19 protocols for schools have been released and implemented. All new guidance has been posted on the District 96 website linked below.
https://www.kcsd96.org/covid-19
NEW *Covid Metrics*
To stay up-to-date this school year on local metrics, please visit the COVID DASHBOARD for District 96. Our priority remains to keep our students safe and follow guidance from the CDC. If your student is identified as a "close contact", you will be notified individually through the contact tracing process.
Click here for the Woodlawn Daily Announcements
Please visit the Woodlawn PTO Blog
Finally, as we continue on in the school year, I run into dates like this Monday (MLK Jr. Day) and I feel poorly prepared. Currently, we are running around trying to survive, day by day, and I know that I need to be better. Our library has displays and classrooms have lessons planned, but I personally have not looked globally enough at all of our important discussion topics. I am crazy proud of the Guiding Coalition of Interculturalism work that I have been a part of, but there is so much more to celebrate within our Woodlawn community. Here is how I look at Woodlawn, the place I have been for 16 straight years as the boss...
We are multicultural and diverse.
“Diversity refers to the differences that exist among individuals such as race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, socioeconomic background, and ethnicity. On the other hand, Multiculturalism is when multiple cultural traditions are not only accepted in the society but also promoted.”
Simply put, this is who we are.
Continue to be patient with me as I look deeper into how to recognize all of our multicultural traditions and strengths. I walk through the hallways here and can visually appreciate our diversity. In 16 years, we have changed quite a bit, but the soul of Woodlawn remains the same. We care deeply about our students, staff and community.
Have a great weekend.