Dear Wornick Families,
We hope this email finds you well.
Like many of you, we saw the news issued today that the mask mandate will be removed in California schools after March 11. This represents a very significant shift in the pandemic. Please give us some time to receive guidance from the state and county and process the changes with our health and safety team. We will continue to keep in mind best practices in child development and health and safety as we consider the diverse perspectives of our community including teachers, students, and families.
Re-Enrollment Confirmation for the 2022-23 School Year
Next Monday, our FACTS portal will open to process forms for your students' continuous enrollment at Wornick for the 2022-2023 school year. You will receive an email on March 7 with instructions to update household information and sign forms for next year. Your packet must be completed by March 14. It is very important that you complete these forms to ensure your child has confirmed their enrollment for next year. We are blessed with a significant number of applications this year and we may not be able to offer your student a spot if their enrollment is not confirmed by March 14. If you are not returning, please indicate that you are withdrawing in FACTS by clicking the button on the landing page when you open FACTS.
COVID-19 Vaccine Policies for the 2022-23 School Year
For the benefit of our students’ learning and development, our school’s leadership is targeting continued progress towards removing COVID-19 restrictions. Our school has an extremely high vaccination rate among our student body, with nearly 90% of our students fully vaccinated. Our vaccination rates as well as our strong protocols, including testing and keeping symptomatic students out of school, make us optimistic that we will be able to do so safely.
Our school has been closely following the state and county guidelines regarding COVID-19 safety and vaccinations. In October 2021, Governor Newsom announced that the COVID-19 vaccine would be added to the list of required immunizations once the vaccine receives full FDA approval. Our school currently requires that students 12 and older be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 while allowing for personal, medical, and religious exemptions. This decision was made at the end of the last calendar year as we anticipated the challenges of overnight trips involving flights, sports teams at the PJCC, and full participation in our school programs. We expect that the COVID-19 vaccine for individuals 12 and older will receive full FDA approval by the start of the 2022-23 school year, and will, therefore, become a statewide requirement. Our school will fully comply with the state order including potentially limiting the types of exemptions given.
Our school plans to fully comply with the state requirement for students five and older when that requirement takes effect as well (likely January 2023 but it is not yet known with certainty). Until that time, unvaccinated students may need to continue testing at a higher frequency than other students and may face some limitations on programs they are able to take part in. We are more frequently encountering field trip sites, overnight class trip programs, and institutions that we partner with that require vaccinations for participation. Wornick will not be modifying our programs for unvaccinated students and there may be some programs that will not be available for unvaccinated students. We are grateful that we are in a community that has such high vaccination rates, and we are also leaving open the possibility of requiring the vaccine for students aged 5-11 ahead of the state timeline should our health and safety committee determine that is necessary.
We look forward to your partnership in the 2022-23 school year,
Adam Eilath