Sheepscot Valley Regional School Unit 12 Superintendent of Schools Howard Tuttle’s report to the district’s board for its Thursday, Jan. 13 meeting states the following

On Jan. 5 RSU 12 began implementing the newly updated Standard Operating Procedures for Investigating and Responding to COVID19 in PreK-12 Schools, updated Dec. 29. Below is a summary of the changes.

● Isolation and quarantine periods from school for asymptomatic students and staff are shortened to five days (plus five additional days of community masking) which is consistent with recently updated guidance from the U.S. CDC.

● Students who are vaccinated, participate in pooled testing, or attend a school that enforces mandatory masking will no longer be required to quarantine from school if they are a close contact, but symptom free.

● The Maine CDC will open an outbreak investigation if a school reports more than 15% of a school population absent, which is the standard currently utilized to define an outbreak from all other infectious diseases.

● Exposure to COVID-19 in an outdoor setting or on a school bus is no longer considered a “close contact.”

● Regardless of where exposure occurs, if an asymptomatic student or staff member is participating in pooled testing, then they will not be required to quarantine from school.

● RSU 12 will accept the results of home COVID tests, but may also request follow-up testing at school depending on testing capacity.

● The RSU 12 community will continue to be notified of positive cases resulting in school exposures via a weekly summary as necessary.

● Schools will continue to identify close contacts and communicate with families even though school quarantine may not be necessary.

● RSU 12 will continue to require masks on school buses.

Thursday’s meeting, at 6:30 p.m. at Chelsea Elementary School, requires face coverings, the agenda states. The meeting will be recorded and be made available at https://www.svrsu.org/page/video-recorded-school-board-meetings

The district serves Westport Island, Alna, Windsor, Whitefield, Chelsea, Somerville and Palermo.