News

January 11, 2022

Hello FUSD Community,

Yesterday we welcomed students back to FUSD classrooms after our winter break. As anticipated, FUSD saw an increase in absences amongst students and staff over a typical school day.

Approximately 13% of our students were out of school on Monday  - whether due to concerns about virus transmission, having a positive test result, being exposed to COVID-19, or any other reason. This is 7% higher than the average student absence rate for recent Mondays. We recognize these are very dynamic times and the data will change daily.

FUSD had 176 teachers absent on Monday, 62 more absences than the average for recent Mondays. We are grateful to the 97 substitute teachers, and certificated site and district staff, who stepped in to cover classrooms. The district also saw a small uptick in the number of classified staff absences. 

We thank our staff, students and families for participating in the at-home test kit program offered by the California Department of Public Health to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in our schools. FUSD distributed over 37,000 test kits for staff and students to administer before returning to campus. 

Proactive screening testing and post-symptom testing over winter break allowed over 750 students and over 125 staff to discover they were COVID positive, self-report to their school and/or supervisor, and prevent those active cases from returning to campus. We are grateful to our community for their efforts to isolate and quarantine in accordance with local and state guidance for those who are COVID positive. While this number is much higher than we are used to seeing, it is similar to other large comprehensive school districts. 

FUSD’s COVID Liaisons are processing reported positive cases among our students and staff during our winter break, and will help impacted individuals determine the date they may return to school/work. 

Cases that did not create points of exposure on our campuses during the winter break will not be included on our COVID-19 Positive Case Data dashboard. FUSD will continue to update the dashboard with confirmed positive cases amongst FUSD students and staff that took place on/before December 22, 2021, and cases that include any on-campus exposure on/after January 10, 2022. 

As a reminder, all students and staff must continue to complete the student COVID-19 screening or self-check for staff every day before entering campus. FUSD continues to offer PCR testing for students and staff each week at each school site in FUSD, and every school day at the District Office.  

Through our established health and safety protocols at the district and site level, which emphasize a layered approach and multiple strategies to prevent the spread of COVID-19, we have demonstrated a strong ability to mitigate the impacts of COVID in our schools. These measures, combined with personal responsibility from each individual, will remain vital as we continue to navigate the Omicron surge.

Thank you for your continued support as we share the responsibility of keeping students and staff safe.

Sincerely,

CJ Cammack
Superintendent