Dear Benicia Families and Staff,
I want to congratulate everyone on a successful opening to the school year. There is a great deal of enthusiasm in the air as students and staff are excited to see one another again. That said, like all districts, we are living with the challenges of COVID-19 and are diligently implementing the CDPH guidelines. (Exposures & Symptoms)
We are adding a COVID-19 dashboard tab to the District website that includes a weekly update of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the District. When we are notified of a positive case, we follow the CDPH guidelines regarding exposure quarantine protocols as noted above. (COVID-19 Dashboard here.)
I also wanted to bring to your attention the State Public Health Officer’s order of August 11 (linked for your reference), which states all school employees must be fully vaccinated by Oct. 15 or be tested once weekly. Our District Nurse is working diligently to bring a testing site for our students and staff here to BUSD. Please stay tuned for more information in the very near future.
As a reminder, all staff and students are required to wear masks indoors. They are optional outside. In addition, our schools are outfitted with MERV13 filters that are very effective in reducing indoor air concentrations of both wildfire smoke particles and COVID-19 virus-sized particles. (CDPH)
Further, BUSD is in need of staffing in key areas. Please consider joining our team. We are looking for food service staff and noon duty supervisors. If you are interested, please apply through Edjoin, linked here.
Thank you all for your partnership, patience, and understanding as we continue to work together to keep our students and staff safe, healthy, and learning.
Please have a restful weekend and we look forward to seeing you on Monday.
Sincerely,
Charles Young, Ed.D.
Superintendent
On we go!