Late last week, Twin Rivers Unified School District Superintendent Dr. Steve Martinez sent out a message covering the district’s current actions to mitigate the effects of COVID19 on the students and faculty of their schools;
To Staff and the Twin Rivers School Community, Happy New Year and welcome back to school!
I hope you had a healthy, safe, and enjoyable winter break with your families. As we move into the second half of this school year, we remain vigilant in our efforts to ensure the safety of our students and staff during the current surge of COVID-19. The opportunity to learn together, to interact and socialize is such a powerful part of a student’s academic and emotional development that we must do all we can to keep ourselves well and our schools open.
As a former teacher and school principal, I know how precious every moment is in the classroom, especially the time between winter and spring breaks—a powerful time for teaching and learning. Students are engaged, motivated and confident as they continue to master academic content knowing they are in a great learning space—a safe, nurturing and structured school environment with strong supports for social-emotional education. Like you, I don’t want anything to disrupt all we have in place and all we have accomplished together since the start of the 2021-2022 school year.
By monitoring and protecting our health, the health of our loved ones, and following all public health and safety protocols, we can manage the impact of this pandemic on our TR school community. To assist you, we offer the following support resources/services:
- COVID-19 Test Kits for K-12 Students: The distribution of at-home COVID-19 test kits to California schools has been the subject of many news stories so I want to clarify a few important points. The good news is that we were able to successfully secure rapid at-home tests for our K-12 students. Even though we, and many other school districts, just recently received the testing kits from the state, we are working hard to issue the kits to students between Jan. 7 – 10. Please talk with your students and check the backpacks of the younger students.
- District Testing for Students and Staff: We’ve expanded hours for student and staff testing – 7 a.m. to 4:45 p.m. Monday – Friday at the District Office (5115 Dudley Boulevard, McClellan Park) and Norwood Junior High School (4601 Norwood Avenue) for the week. We will assess our capacity and ability to maintain these hours into next week.
- Vaccination Clinics: Children ages 5 and older are now approved for vaccinations. Be sure to check our Health Services webpage for updates on clinics at TR school sites (we are in the process of scheduling new clinics). Click HERE for information on Sacramento County vaccine clinics.
- Updated Guidance: We anticipate updated guidance from the CDC for K-12 schools being released in the coming days. Once this guidance is released, we will notify parents, students and staff of changes to the guidance that may impact sports and extracurricular guidelines. We consistently follow CDC and state guidelines as they change and are updated to maintain a safe environment for students and staff.
All Hands on Deck
We continue to face staffing shortages due to COVID-19. I want to take this opportunity to give a great big shout-out to our employees who are stepping up to lend a hand at our school sites. Our VAPA teachers, counselors, teachers on special assignment, intervention specialists, District administrators, and many others have all stepped up and filled in at sites this week. I am proud and grateful to all of you. This is the kind of team spirit that makes TR such a special place. Thank you all.
Be Safe, Stay Focused
To our families, please continue to check your students daily for COVID-19 symptoms. Be sure to keep them home if they have any symptoms. If children are not ill, they should be in school. Our goal is to make sure all of our TR students continue to make progress academically and socially, so they can achieve their full potential.
Again, Happy New Year, and here’s to a year full of teamwork, positive attitudes, and a shared commitment to serve every student, every day.
All the best, Steve Martinez, Ed.D.
Superintendent, Twin Rivers Unified
