Kenai Peninsula Borough School District COVID-19 update due to continued COVID-19 community contagion throughout the Kenai Peninsula:
- A SmartStart plan update so more students could attend school onsite during High Risk operations will be presented to the KPBSD Board of Education on December 7, 2020
- KPBSD Grades 1-12: 100% Remote Learning from home will continue through Friday, December 18, 2020 (school calendars)
- KPBSD Pre-K, Kindergarten, and Special Education Intensive Needs learners may again return to onsite learning at school beginning Wednesday, December 2, 2020, with greater safety plans in place
- The 100% Remote Learning only continues for these groups, through December 1, 2020
- Title-I Pre-K will only be offered onsite at school beginning December 2, 2020
- Six small schools continue to be open to onsite at school learning in low-risk operations, but could shift to 100% Remote Learning at any time based on COVID-19 risk in the community
- Ongoing emphasis: keep staff healthy and out of 14-Day Quarantine, so school instruction and operations can continue uninterrupted
What you can do
Help bring children back to school and resume sports
Leading into the Thanksgiving holiday, High COVID-19 Risk continues in most Kenai Peninsula communities, with an acceleration of people becoming ill occurring. Exposure and transmission is happening in family and friend groups, workplace break rooms, and everyday interactions. Local health care capacity and operations of essential services are closely monitored. Everyone knows the tools to prevent COVID-19 spread, so now is the time to use the tools—especially to wear a mask, physically distance, keep your bubble very small. Limit your actions to plank the curve and shift the trend downwards, so schools can reopen to the onsite at-school learning option for all grades.
November Timeline Review
- KPBSD shifted to 100% Remote Learning for all students following Governor Dunleavy’s November 12, 2020, plea to hunker down through November and bend the rise of positive COVID-19 back down in Alaska
- On November 24, 2020, after assessment of positive cases, health care capacity, and input from the KPBSD medical advisory board, Remote Learning from home is extended for KPBSD 1-12 Grades, through December 18, 2020
- Winter break for most KPBSD schools is December 18, 2020 – January 4, 2021 (school calendars)
- Data demonstrates that schools can be safe when mitigation plans are always followed, and class sizes are small. Plans continue to bring more students back to school during High Risk operations
Links
- KPBSD 21 Day Thankful Invite with free Sources of Strength Thankfulness journal download
- DHSS COVID-19 resources “Cases are rapidly accelerating. The current alert level is high across all regions.”
- KPBSD COVID-19 risk level dashboard
- KPBSD COVID-19 Hub or covid19.kpbsd.org
- Helpful new flyer: What to Do if You’ve Been Exposed to COVID-19: put your quarantine plan into action
*Specific information for Pre-K, Kindergarten, and Special Education Intensive Needs learners
To keep schools safe and the COVID-19 transmission level low in school, these actions must be followed with fidelity at all times:
- NEW: Staff and all students (PreK and older) must wear a mask at all times
- Mitigation plans at school sites need to be implemented with fidelity
- Cohorts need to be fixed groups, and maintained at all times
- 6’ physical distancing with staff-to-staff needs to occur at all times, especially in break rooms and common areas. This is not time to relax this directive; physical distance will keep staff healthy in school, and minimize in-school exposure or transmission
School staff will contact Pre-K, K, and Intensive Needs families to talk about school resuming onsite again on December 2, 2020. The COVID-19 risk level remains very high with widespread community transmission, so individual family circumstances may require a family to choose to continue with 100% Remote Learning Note: an immediate shift to 100% Remote could occur at any time if a positive case, or transmission at school occurs, and requires 14-Day Quarantine, staffing shortage, or school closure.
100% Remote Learning
Central Peninsula Schools Central Kenai Peninsula includes Kasilof to Sterling, extending through Kenai, Nikiski, Soldotna, and DHSS “other north” communities. Cooper Landing is not included in the 17 Central Peninsula schools:
- Aurora Borealis Charter School
- Kaleidoscope Charter School
- K-Beach Elementary School
- Kenai Alternative School
- Kenai Central High School
- Kenai Middle School
- Mountain View Elementary School
- Nikiski Middle-High School
- Nikiski North Star Elementary School
- Redoubt Elementary School
- River City Academy
- Skyview Middle School
- Soldotna Elementary School
- Soldotna High School
- Soldotna Montessori Charter School
- Sterling Elementary School
- Other North: Tustumena Elementary School
Eastern Kenai Peninsula Schools
- Moose Pass School
- Seward High School
- Seward Middle School
- William H. Seward Elementary
Southern Kenai Peninsula Schools
- Chapman School
- Fireweed Academy
- Homer Flex School
- Homer High School
- Homer Middle School
- Kachemak Selo School
- McNeil Canyon Elementary School
- Nikolaevsk School
- Ninilchik School
- Paul Banks Elementary School
- Razdolna School
- Voznesenka School
- West Homer Elementary School
Small schools are open to onsite learning in low risk
Six small KPBSD schools in Cooper Landing, Hope, Nanwalek, Port Graham, Seldovia, and Tebughna will also continue to operate in low COVID-19 risk, and offer both 100% Remote and onsite-at-school learning options. A shift to 100% Remote Learning could happen at any time if there is positive COVID-19 in these communities.