Director’s message 32

ISO Community,

22.1.21 ISO Covid-19 Action Plan and Update

Once again, I am writing to inform you that two Upper School students have tested positive for COVID-19. An additional four students are presently attending school via distance learning and waiting for their test results.

As discussed this morning, as per our August Reopening Plan, “If a student or school employee tests positive for COVID-19, all spaces in which the individual was present will be closed for 72 hours and disinfected.”

That said, the Educational Leadership Team (ELT) understood that things have changed regarding our reopening plan:

  1. We did successfully reopen on August 19th. Next week, we will finish the first Semester of the school year.
  2. We can now see that the current trend of the pandemic here in Burkina Faso will require a more aggressive approach to ensure that we are holding physical classes in a safe and appropriate way.

During the ELT meeting today, it was clear that the increase in community transmission of COVID-19 required additional strategies to ensure we can stay physically open when a student, faculty or staff becomes COVID-19 positive.
To that end, we will transition from our August Reopening Plan to a new framework: our “ISO Covid-19 Action Plan.”

On behalf of the ELT team, I want to thank you for all your support, and for working with us to help ensure the safety of our entire school community. Our new protocol will be translated and sent out to our community next week.

As we move forward and resume classes on Monday, please be sure to report any student COVID-19 symptoms to our school nurse, Aimee Dayamba at a.dayamba@iso.bf.

Going forward, if an employee or student tests positive for COVID-19, immediate contact tracing will take place. School will remain open contingent upon there being a COVID-19 positivity rate of less than 5%.

We wish our two Upper School students a speedy recovery.
Have a relaxing weekend and see you on Monday!

Jeff