1/6/22
Dear Bulldog families,
For the past two years, our Sutherlin School District community has embraced in-person learning. Thank you for helping make this possible. We appreciate your continued support to maintain in-person instruction for students.
COVID-19 continues to change with new variants and our knowledge about fighting the virus continues to grow over time. Current modeling from Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) shows that Oregon will likely experience a significant COVID-19 surge and rapid transmission, driven by the Omicron variant, beginning in January and continuing through February. This surge will likely impact staffing, so please be patient with us as we work through these challenges.
Success for our district means that our students are in school consistently, which they need for their health and well-being as well as for their learning. Therefore, our district will continue with in-person instruction while following current health and safety guidelines related to COVID-19. There have been no directives to close schools and we intend to continue in-person instruction, as long as we have adequate staffing to safely do so.
We will continue to offer the athletic and extra-curricular activities that our students enjoy, to the extent they are allowed by OSAA. However, as these activities are now indoors there is a much higher risk of virus spread and quarantine due to exposure. We have already witnessed some districts cancelling games and having to quarantine teams, and unfortunately, we expect this trend to continue throughout the winter months.
Our goal is to continually keep students and staff in the classroom and at events, while also taking steps to ensure everyone’s health and safety. Students are depending on us to deliver a school experience where care, connection and learning are offered. Families can help support our efforts by making sure students are not coming to school with COVID-19 symptoms.
We will keep families and the school community updated with any new information as it becomes available.
We are all in this together and greatly appreciate your ongoing support throughout this challenging time.
Sincerely,
Terry Prestianni
Superintendent