Dear TPS Staff and Families,
Today, Shawnee County Health Department released its Community Transmission Scorecard, and the county has increased and is currently still in the Red. This is our second consecutive week in the red range at the community level and we are now seeing an increase in the community spread impacting our schools. The county has shared the following regarding the community spread:
All measures in the county have worsened since last week.
Total cases in the county per week are at a very high level (over 700, a 126% increase since last week).
The Health Department had more cases reported in the first 10 days of November than the entire month of October.
As a proactive step, while the positive virus spread is within 1% or less in most schools, the increase in the number of staff impacted due to the spread is preventing our district from being able to successfully support student in-person learning in a safe manner. Many of our regular substitutes have asked to stop substituting for a period this month as they have also been impacted by the community spread. Therefore, to support adequate staffing in a safe setting, we will transition to remote learning through Thanksgiving and we will assess the county scorecard and the impact weekly. We know this may be a hardship to some families and school principals are doing all they can to support needs at this time. Additionally, we are opening 11 lunch sites during the remote phase that will be posted on our parent resource site tomorrow.
The following factors have been reviewed in making this decision:
We believe we must act proactively to prevent a significant spread in Topeka Public Schools at this time.
The traditional staff absences during this time of the year along with the COVID -19 related absences that are due to the community exposure are creating widespread staffing shortages that cannot be covered effectively across the district.
The district's internal scorecard has shown an increase in community contact cases, although it remains at 1% for staff and below 1% for students. Our TPS Positive Case Rate Scorecard shows the cases we have had in Topeka Public Schools, which has increased from last week.
The Shawnee County Community Transmission Scorecard shows an uncontrolled rating and has steadily increased.
KDHE has reported the increased spread and clusters in our community although it has not impacted TPS yet.
These factors, and its impact on the district's ability to serve students with adequate staffing have led to the decision at this time that we will transition to remote learning for next week to keep the spread down and to continue instruction through the Thanksgiving holiday.
We will assess the status of the community spread throughout November, and we will inform families through weekly updates. Thank you for your continued support of your children and the district.
Dr. Tiffany Anderson
Superintendent