Attention Vision Academy Families,
Governor Tom Wolf has pushed back the “stay at home” order in PA through April 30th. This means that Vision Academy will be closed until at least April 30th, or until further notice.
The Pennsylvania Department of Health has announced the following:
General guidance for Pennsylvanians: Stay home as much as possible. Try to get groceries once per week instead of daily. Guidelines for Stay at Home Orders: Freedom of travel remains, but please refrain from non-essential travel. Essential travel includes things like commuting to an essential job, picking up supplies like groceries and medicine, and checking on family and pets in other households. Do not host or attend gatherings.
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Dear VACS Community,
Governor Tom Wolf announced that all K-12 Pennsylvania schools will be closed for 10 business days effective Monday, March 16. The administration has been working with school districts as well as state and local officials to gather input on this decision. The Wolf Administration will continue to monitor COVID-19 in the commonwealth, and at the end of 10 days, will reevaluate and decide whether continued closure is needed.
Governor Wolf made the following statement:
“We understand that these are trying times and recognize the impact of the Coronavirus on our students and communities. First and foremost, my top priority as governor – and that of our education leaders – must be to ensure the health and safety of our students and school communities. As such, I am ordering that all schools in the commonwealth close for the next two weeks. Be aware that no school district will be penalized if it fails to meet the 180 day or school hours requirements. The Department of Education will work with intermediate units and other stakeholders to support school districts with any continuity of learning plans they may be pursuing.
Also, the Pennsylvania Department of Education announced today that it received a waiver from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to allow eligible schools to serve meals to low income students in a non-congregate setting, such as a drive-through or grab and go, during this closure. We will also work with schools to assist them with those plans.”
We appreciate your collaboration as we work together to deal with this difficult issue.
Please be safe and don’t hesitate to reach out to us with any questions.
We CAN do this!!!!
One Love,
The Vision Academy Team
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Monitoring Coronavirus and Maintaining Community Health at VACS
I hope you are having a relaxing weekend and Happy Leap Year!!!
We wanted to provide an update on our efforts to ensure the safety of our scholars and community as we learn more about Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). We are monitoring the World Health Organization (WHO), Centers for Disease Control (CDC), and PA Department of Health updates and are consulting their evidence-based and situation-appropriate guidelines to contain transmission. Given how quickly the global situation is evolving, we are following new developments and will continue to reevaluate our steps and actions daily.
In the meantime, the CDC recommends taking regular preventive actions to help minimize the spread of respiratory illness. VACS will continue to reinforce the following:
- STAY HOME IF YOU ARE SICK: All staff, and scholars who have a temperature of 100 degrees or higher should stay home until they are fever-free, without the use of fever-reducing medication for 24 hours.
- Practice good hygiene: We encourage all members of our community to wash hands thoroughly and often with soap and warm water for at least 20 seconds (or as long as it takes to sing Happy Birthday or say the alphabet twice), and cover up coughs and sneezes with a tissue or the inside of the arm. Alcohol-based hand sanitizer is a reasonable alternative when hand washing is not an option.
- Communicate with the school: We ask all families to alert our main office and nurse immediately if their child is diagnosed with any communicable health condition.
- Take appropriate precautions: If you, your child, or someone who has close contact with your child has recently traveled from any country with an outbreak of coronavirus, please self- quarantine for 14 days from your date of return or date of contact with another traveler, as recommended by CDC travel advisories. If a member of the community develops a fever or cough/shortness of breath, AND has either recently returned from travel to a hotspot or been in contact with a person diagnosed with COVID-19 within the past 14 days, then they should see a health care provider.
We also strongly encourage you to follow the CDC travel guidelines and consider potential travel challenges as you make plans. The CDC website is updated frequently, so please review often.
Our staff is asked to reinforce the above actions. Families with health-related questions are encouraged to reach out to our school nurse Mrs. Jackson 484-466-2124 or nurse@vacharter.org
In times like this, we are particularly grateful for the strength, love and connectedness of our school community. Please look for further communications from us, and please remind your family members of best hygiene practices.
One Love,
Mr. Adderley
CEO/Principal VACS
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CEO/Principal
Vision Academy Charter School