Easton-Redding-Region 9 School Districts

August, 2022

Dear Families,

I hope this letter finds you well. The Easton, Redding, and Region 9 (ER9) faculty and staff are excited to welcome your children back to school on Wednesday, August 31. The purpose of this letter is to provide some important information about school opening and some key details concerning the school year.

First, we are interested in how your child may feel about the transition back to school. It is normal for students to feel some anxiety about the first day, especially if they are attending a new school. Please take a moment to complete this short survey (send at beginning of school) for each school age student in your family. We can use this information to reach out to you if your child is overly nervous about school this year.

Second, you will receive welcome letters from your school and teachers with specific enrollment or class information. Please take a moment to read this information carefully and reach out to your building principals if you have any questions. This letter will cover School Leadership, Health, School Security, and Superintendent Communication.

School Leadership
There have been some changes to our school leadership teams. Please review our principal and assistant principals below.

Key Health Updates
School will resume this year as ‘close to normal’ as possible. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) recently released updated guidelines that are more risk-based, advising people at higher risk to take more personal precautions. The State Department of Public Health (DPH) has not provided follow-up guidance at this time. Here are some key reminders on how we will commence the 2022-2023 school year.  


Key Points
● Masks are not required, but students and staff may still wear them. We will support this individual decision.
● If you have Covid-19 symptoms, please test immediately. If you need a test, please contact your school nurse.
● If you test positive, you must remain home from school for 5 days. You may return to school between day 6-10 if you are feeling well and we encourage you to wear a mask.
● Schools are not contact tracing this year (this practice was stopped last spring)
● We will not send daily letters concerning Covid-19 cases in our schools. Instead, these data will be reported to the following portal which is updated each week.

School Security Reminders
School safely is our number one priority. Each school has a School Resource Officer (SRO) or School Security Officer (SSO). Our SSOs are retired police officers and participate in school security training each year.

Key Points
● All school doors are locked with double vestibule entry systems and buzzers
● We have recently upgraded our classroom door locks and entry systems
● We recently modified our visitor entry protocols which includes an ID system
● We practice lock down procedures with local law enforcement
● We are working with local police to incorporate a new emergency notification system

Communication from the Superintendent
The best way to communicate with staff and families is through our school messaging system. Please ensure that your contact information in PowerSchool is up-to-date. Family engagement is important to me and the best way to receive information about school and district events or weather related issues is to receive an email, text or phone message from our system.

Key Points
● If necessary, please contact your school office if you need to update family contact information
● Follow us in instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/er9district
● Follow us on Facebook here:www.facebook.com/er9district
● Our website is: www.er9.org

On behalf of all faculty and staff, we hope you enjoy the remaining summer days with your family. We look forward to the first day of school and we wish you and your children a very happy and healthy school year.

Sincerely,
Dr. Jason McKinnon Superintendent