Fern Ridge School District

Beginning Monday, September 20th, FRSD Superintendent Gary Carpenter will hold community Q and A Sessions be from 5:30-6:00 PM.  These will occur every month, on the night of the FRSD School Board meetings (typically the 3rd Monday of the month), for as long as they are helpful and utilized by the community.  Each month there will be 5-10 minutes of information shared by the the District, followed by approximately 20 minutes of available time for those in attendance to type questions in the chat. We hope in future months the district will be able to present information on a wide range of topics, however this first meeting will probably be focused on all things COVID-19, although questions on any topic will be accepted. Any questions we don’t have immediate answers to will be followed up with the following day.  We hope our families find this useful, please share this with your family and friends.  The link for each meeting will posted on the website as they approach.  The link for Monday’s meeting is: https://fernridge-k12-or-us.zoom.us/j/88212696504

Over the past few months and as recently as this last week, you may have seen news stories about disruptions in the supply chain across the country, resulting from effects of the pandemic. Industries, including food and foodservice, as well as construction and automotive, have been impacted by manufacturing and labor shortages across the country in ways that we’ve never experienced before.

Students and families can continue to count us for great-tasting meals kids love to eat every day, but as you may have already seen, there will likely be more frequent menu changes based on product substitutions from our suppliers.

Understanding these supply chain challenges will likely continue for the next several months, we wanted to reach out and let you know we’re doing everything we can to proactively address issues before they inevitably arise. Working in partnership with Foodbuy, our group purchasing organization and the largest procurement organization in North America, some of the proactive steps we have taken, include:

• We have changed our ordering schedules to allow distributors more time to identify new sources for out-of-stock products in the event it occurs.
• We’ve identified alternate suppliers and products where we found that existing ones wouldn’t be able to meet our needs. For example, we learned our previous supplier for pizza dough would not be able to commit to serving our schools, so we contracted with a new one that can.
• In June, we planned menus for this fall and began placing orders for food at that time. This process was designed to help suppliers and distributors plan well ahead for stock we need to serve kids now.

If there’s one thing the past 18 months has proven, it’s that flexibility is in our DNA. From turning cafeteria operations into emergency feeding programs overnight when the pandemic hit to serving kids in classrooms and through meal-kit pick up sites through the past school year, our team is passionate about the meals we serve your students and they’re skilled at quickly adapting to ensure that kids are always fed.

One additional note for families with students who have allergies: please remind your child to be sure to check with the cafeteria manager regarding product substitutions that may not be reflected in the menu posted. We will make every attempt to update Nutrislice in real-time, but out of an abundance of caution, please do not solely rely on the digital nutrition panels to accommodate allergies or medical conditions.

FRSD families,

It has become clear in the last 72 hours, that COVID-19 is running wild in our community.  Most of the cases are a result of students being close contacts OUTSIDE of school, and being forced to quarantine, OR catching COVID-19 from off-campus events or family members, and testing positive a few days later, with or without symptoms, thus requiring isolation for the individual, and contact tracing by the school.

The process of identification, contact tracing, informing families, and working with those in quarantine to provide educational services  has quickly become taxing to our system.  Keeping up with the information, subsequent contract tracing and informing of parents is a critical step to reduce the spread but is very time consuming as well. The district is committed to providing proactive and transparent communication to staff and families regarding this topic.  In the days ahead, we are committed to:

• SAFETY PROTOCOLS: Continuing to implement and enforce all of our current campus safety protocols including (but not limited to): screening, cleaning, mask wearing, ventilation upgrades, hand washing, social distancing and use of cohorts where possible.
• CLOSE CONTACT NOTIFICATION:  ANYONE that we have identified to be a close contact through contact tracing while the positive person was on campus will be personally contacted. All people identified as close contacts will be contacted directly with a phone call, notified of the exposure, and provided information about appropriate measures that need to be taken.  Typically, all close contacts are identified and notified within 1-2 days of first learning of the case.  Certain circumstances such as complex contact tracing may take longer.
• NOTIFICATION OF THOSE “NOT” A CLOSE CONTACT:  Any day that the school is notified of a positive case on campus, all families in the building will be notified via a website post that same day, or first thing the next day depending on timing.  In addition, there will be a phone dialer to all families, when the positive case was on campus in the last 24-48 hours.  The message will be, that at this time we are conducting contact tracing, and that any one identified as a close contact will be notified.  The phone dialer will NOT be utilized in examples where we are notified of a positive case, and the student has not been on campus for over 48 hours from the time we were notified they were positive.

The best ways to prevent the spread of COVID-19 include being vaccinated when eligible, wearing face masks, keeping physical distance from others, staying home when ill, and practicing other good health hygiene habits.  Thank you for helping to protect  your family and school community by following public health officials safety guidance.