Thursday, February 10, 2022

This message includes:

• COVID Protocols
• Deliberative Session Update

COVID Protocols

On Monday night I shared a COVID update with the Hudson School Board. 

Between December 23 and February 4, there were 528 COVID positive staff and students, with 320 cases being reported in the first two weeks of January. We’ve seen a significant drop in cases, with 21 positives being reported last week.

I made a recommendation to the school board to move to “masks recommended” on February 14. There are several reasons for my recommendation.

• COVID positives in the community have steadily dropped, from a high of 439 to 71 as of yesterday
• With widespread access to vaccines, it’s time to continue to ease our protocols
• We believe the vast majority of transmission has happened outside of school
• If we look at hospitalizations – measuring severity of impact instead of counting cases – our local hospitalizations are lower than they were in November
• Last week, NH DHHS made a significant change in practice, asking schools to report numbers once a week instead of individual cases
• The pandemic has taken a toll on everyone and removing masks is an important step to moving back to a more normal experience for everyone

While moving to “masks recommended” is a big step forward, we will continue to use other layers to help mitigate the spread of COVID-19. We will:

• Continue to follow the same practices, requiring anyone with COVID symptoms to stay home
• Continue to follow NH DHHS Guidelines for Isolation & Quarantine
• Ask that people continue to report COVID positive cases by calling your student’s school or using the reporting form
• Continue to require masks for COVID positive individuals returning to schools on days 6-10 AND people with a COVID positive individual in their household
• Continue to clean, have hand sanitizer available and encourage good hand hygiene
• Open windows for ventilation (when temps allow) and encourage students to be outside
• Require masks on school buses, as per Federal guidelines
• Add mitigation strategies, with targeted masking as an option, if there is an outbreak of cases
• The benchmark for additional mitigation strategies are positive cases that reach 3% of a school population - we only hit these numbers during the peak of cases in January and I don’t anticipate that happening again

We are also adjusting the way we report cases. We have been updating the district dashboard daily since the start of school. We will now report the number of cases at the end of the week. We will keep an eye on any uptick in cases and make adjustments accordingly.

On Tuesday evening, Chief Buxton, Hudson’s Health Officer, recommended to the Hudson Select Board that the town mask requirement and COVID dashboard for town departments end. The selectboard unanimously approved the recommendation.

Deliberative Session Update

After much debate and discussion, two warrant articles were changed at the deliberative session. 

• A motion was made to add $650,000 to the operating budget. The voters in attendance approved the motion so the full budget as proposed to the school board will go to the voters on March 8.
• A motion was also made to amend warrant article 8, the playground at Dr. HO Smith. The motion was to use the year-end fund balance to fund the playground instead of raising funds. The motion passed.

Information about the budget can be found on the district website.

Have a good weekend.

Larry Russell
Superintendent of Schools

NH COVID-19 Information

Important Dates

February 12 – Town Deliberative Session – 9am

February 21 – School Board Meeting

February 28 - March 4 – Winter Break

March 8 – Town Voting – Alvirne High School & the Hudson Community Center