St. John’s Lutheran School, Orange, California
The TK-6 waiver was approved by OCHCA on 8/19/2020
St. John’s Lutheran School Waiver Application Process and Safety Protocols
On Friday, July 17, Governor Gavin Newsom put forth the COVID-19 and Reopening In-Person Learning Framework for K-12 Schools in California. St. John’s Lutheran School is an elementary school located in Old Towne Orange, California. St. John’s Lutheran School has continuously operated in Orange since 1883, serving families with a high-quality education.
St. John’s Lutheran School has nearly 700 students. These families serve our community in a wide variety of ways from doctors and nurses to firefighters, law enforcement, and many other “essential worker” positions. The school is a critical piece of all family’s life, not only educating their child, but caring for the children while they are working, working even during the pandemic.
Waiver Application (p. 6)
School Waiver St. John’s Lutheran School August 4 2020
Background Information
St. John’s Lutheran School – private school
Number of schools – 1
Enrollment – 511
Superintendent (or equivalent name) – Dr. Jacob D. Hollatz
Grades/Number of Students Proposed to Reopen:
Kindergarten: 73 – 3 classes
1st grade: 62 – 3 classes
2nd grade: 75 – 3 classes
3rd grade: 65 – 3 classes
4th grade: 73 – 3 classes
5th grade: 79 – 3 classes
6th grade: 84 – 3 classes
Date of proposed reopening: August 18, 2020
Name of person completing application: Dr. Jacob D. Hollatz
Phone number: (714) 288-4406
Date: August 4, 2020
I. Consultation
LABOR:
The teachers, instructional assistants, and office staff at St. John’s deeply desire to be back at work and have students physically in classrooms. The staff was presented with the health, safety and re-opening protocols on July 20 and have agreed that they overwhelmingly prefer to teach in person than online. The teaching, support, and administrative staff were surveyed about their desire for teaching modality. 90% of them want to come back.
PARENT AND COMMUNITY ORGANIZATIONS
School Age Care (on side day care) – July 20, 2020 consultation – the day care staff results are included in the staff results above and are overwhelmingly ready to start school face-to-face.
St. John’s also has a parent Auxiliary or PTA. The executive board of this organization was surveyed and they unanimously want to come back to school. They were consulted on July 30, 2020. Parents were also surveyed on July 14. 73% of parents desired the school to open face-to-face and that survey had a 95% response rate. See the survey results below.
Since St. John’s is a private school, we have no official labor organization. Our teachers were provided with an anonymous survey to express their interest in returning to campus and the results are in the above graphs.
II. Elementary School Reopening Plans
The information below in the documents confirms that St. John’s Lutheran School reopening plan(s) address the following, consistent with guidance from the California Department of Public Health and the local health department, have been published on the website of the local educational agency (on this site and on http://www.sjls.org):
CLEANING AND DISINFECTION
See the Infectious Disease Prevention Plan below.
COHORTING
See the Health, Safety and Reopening Plan below.
ENTRANCES, EGRESSES, AND MOVEMENT WITHIN THE SCHOOL
See the Health, Safety and Reopening Plan below as well as the entrance/exit maps below.
CAMPUS_MAP_StJohnsOrange AM DROP OFF AREAS
CAMPUS_MAP_StJohnsOrange PM Drop off areas
FACE COVERINGS AND OTHER ESSENTIAL PROTECTIVE GEAR
See the Health, Safety and Reopening Plan below.
HEALTH SCREENINGS FOR STUDENTS AND STAFF
See the Health, Safety and Reopening Plan and the Infectious Disease Prevention Plan below.
HEALTHY HYGIENE PRACTICES
See the Health, Safety and Reopening Plan below.
IDENTIFICATION AND CONTACT TRACING
Staff and student protocols are in place to identify where staff and children have been to help in contact tracing. Weekly guidelines for staff include: Weekly Guidelines for Covid-19 8.3.20, postings on every door to identify where staff and children are at all times and a comprehensive attendance monitoring system (LMS/Learning Management System).
See the Infectious Disease Prevention Plan below as well.
PHYSICAL DISTANCING
See the Health, Safety and Reopening Plan below as well as the Campus Maps above.
STAFF TRAINING AND FAMILY EDUCATION
All staff are trained on COVID identification using an HR approved online course. See the St. John’s Waiver and Infectious Disease Prevention Plan below. Families will receive training through parent orientations scheduled for the beginning of the year.
TESTING OF STUDENTS AND STAFF
See the Health, Safety and Reopening Plan below, the Infectious Disease Prevention Plan and the Waiver Re-Opening below. Additionally, the school has isolation areas set up for students, published protocols for staff and community partners for testing. Our insurance fully covers COVID testing for staff. Community testing locations and partnerships are provided to all staff and families. St. John’s follows all OCHCA, CDPH, and CDC guidelines as published in St. John’s attestation that is on file on our campus. Teachers and school staff will also be able to utilize the Orange County teacher COVID testing site.
TRIGGERS FOR DISTANCE LEARNING
St. John’s will follow the CDPH guidelines when it becomes necessary to close down and return to all distance learning.
COMMUNICATION PLANS
St. John’s will follow all CDPH, CDC and HIIPA guidelines when it comes to communicating to families about regular COVID protocols and when a COVID incident happens on campus. Additionally, we have a COVID certified HR staff member to liaison between our organization and the proper health departments.
SCHOOL WEBSITE
Content are published here on our school learning and communication blog as well as on https://sjls.org/admissions/welcome-visit.us.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:
St. John’s Waiver for Re-Opening
Health, Safety and Reopening Plan
Infectious Disease Prevention Plan [1]
CDPH and Cal/OSHA Guidance for Schools and School-Based Programs
California Department of Education Stronger Together: A Guidebook for the Safe Reopening of California’s Public Schools
https://www.cde.ca.gov/ls/he/hn/strongertogether.asp
CDPH COVID-19 and Reopening In-Person Learning Framework for K-12 Schools in California, 2020-2021 School Year
https://www.cdph.ca.gov/Programs/CID/DCDC/CDPH%20Document%20Library/COVID -19/Schools%20Reopening%20Recommendations.pdf
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