Meeting Time: August 25, 2021 at 4:00pm PDT
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Agenda Item

T.-4 21-1889 Adoption by the Board of Education of Resolution No. 2122-0003 - Requiring COVID-19 Testing at All School Sites.

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    Amy Hood about 3 years ago

    I am writing to you today as a parent to voice my support for Resolution No. 2122-0003 - Requiring COVID-19 Testing at All School Sites. I do not believe that reactive testing is sufficient enough and that every school site in Oakland deserves regular weekly onsite testing not staffed by OUSD educators. I also request that school sites are given access to Primary, the database that houses testing consent information so that schools can run testing more efficiently.

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    Ignacio Perez about 3 years ago

    Theirs a need to be tested weekly! Its ridiculous to wait 3 day to get PCR results. what was the point of sending back our kids to school, if they now are loosing academic time waiting at home. My kid has cold and he is been home for 3 days, waiting for a test result that was done Friday! OUSD needs to find a better system

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    Carrie Anderson about 3 years ago

    We need COVID testing at ALL school sites that is accessible to ALL of the community: students, staff, and families. No amendments, no changes. Pass this resolution as it is written!

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    Antonio Lettieri about 3 years ago

    I am a parent of a student in 2nd grade at Melrose Leadership Academy in District 5. I encourage you to pass this resolution as originally written by Director Hutchinson, without adding watered-down amendments, to provide free, on-site weekly COVID testing at every school site. OUSD has already received $300 million from the state of California in COVID relief funds and we should use that funding to ensure that all students and staff at every school site have access to free, weekly COVID testing.

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    Maria Ramos about 3 years ago

    Im a parent of 3 children at MLA and I support Director’s Hutchinson's. Having on-sure weekly testing at each ousd schools, fully staffed by Ousd and not by teachers is very critical to keep our kids and staff safe.

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    Kelly Rayome about 3 years ago

    I am a parent of a student in second grade at Melrose Leadership Academy in District 5. I encourage you to pass this resolution as originally written by Director Hutchinson, without adding watered-down amendments, to provide free, on-site weekly COVID testing at every school site. OUSD has already received $300 million from the state of California in COVID relief funds and we should use that funding to ensure that all students and staff at every school site have access to free, weekly COVID testing.

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    Jennifer Rice about 3 years ago

    I support making testing available at all sites weekly to enable testing of teachers during its open hours, encourage testing of even the asymptomatic, and make it convenient enough to ensure testing. Also, testing results need to be available within a 72 hour period. And, tests need to be available. My site is already out of take home tests and can’t tell me when pop up testing will be on site to plan for it.

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    Jayne Stein about 3 years ago

    Our children must remain and school and our teachers must be allowed to focus their time and attention on students, not testing. Weekly testing for students is critical for our children’s education through the pandemic.

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    Tully Velte about 3 years ago

    As a parent of an elementary school child; regular, full-school testing is the most urgent thing we can do to protect our children’s well-being, our teachers, and OUSD families.

    Masks and ventilation are critical but aren't reliable. The age of our children & condition of our facilities doesn’t warrant full comfort. Given we had no choice to either unenroll or return to full in-person, the onus is on OUSD to provide all OUSD families with an assurance of safety. Fundamental to that is knowing where the virus is circulating. Reliable, frequent testing shows us that – and it shows us that it can be at any and every school. Which it is.

    Aside from vaccinations, regular and timely (one of our test results took 4 days to get back), testing is the main thing our elementary children, and their guardians can do to help slow the spread.

    You have the resources, if you have the will, to make bi-weekly mandatory on-site testing happen. Make it happen and don’t delay.

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    adriana Martinez about 3 years ago

    Reactive testing is not enough. Please help us keep the kids safe. every school site in Oakland deserves regular weekly onsite testing not staffed by the educators as they have more than enough on their plate focusing on the education of the children.

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    Tamila Jackson about 3 years ago

    Reactive testing is not enough to ensure the safety of the students and staff at our schools in Oakland! The covid and delta numbers are increasing by the day and we are wasting time and putting our schools at more risk the longer we take to require weekly testing at all sites. We need primary testing at every site managed by OUSD staff and not teachers!

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    Maria Dominguez about 3 years ago

    I am a OUSD alumna. I support Director Mike Hutchinson's proposal to require weekly COVID-19 testing at all OUSD schools. I am a public health professional who focuses on health equity issues in Alameda County. I am very concerned about the fact that per the Alameda County Public Health Department data available at https://covid-19.acgov.org/data, Oakland has some of the highest number of COVID-19 cases in Alameda County.

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    Sara Pietras about 3 years ago

    We need to move beyond reactive testing which is not sufficient enough. Every school site in Oakland deserves regular weekly onsite testing not staffed by OUSD educators. I request that school sites are given access to Primary, the database that houses testing consent information so that we can run testing more efficiently.

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    Gabrielle Sloane Law about 3 years ago

    If we are going to keep our kids, families and teachers safe, regular testing is critical! And this needs to be managed by the district so that school staff and teachers can focus on education.

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    Sara Holderfield about 3 years ago

    Weekly testing needs to be done and managed by district staff. Our front office staff, principals and educators should not be scrambling to organize testing. Vestra needs onsite support to manage the process.

    I’m a small group specialist and I see many children and classrooms in a day. I double mask to protect others and myself. Weekly testing for children and staff will help minimize the effects of delta and covid.

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    Tiffany Chan about 3 years ago

    Please incorporate weekly testing at all OUSD schools to keep our kids safe! The district should be managing and administering this (not the teachers and school staff).

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    Hoa Li about 3 years ago

    We need weekly testing at all school sites to protect our kids and stop the spread of covid. Providing testing occasionally, to a limited group, and only after a positive case will only create an environment where the virus will continue to spread uncontrolled in our community. We need bold actions now! Don’t wait for an uncontrolled spread with kids ending up in hospitals or worst before taking action! If other school districts can make this happen, so can we. Use the funding that already has been allocated to protect our kids now. What are we waiting for?!

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    EJ Kim about 3 years ago

    I strongly support VP Davis’ amendment to require testing at schools. I received notice this week that my two children were potentially exposed to a person who tested positive for Covid via on site after care. The exposure was Friday and our children still have not been tested at school because there are insufficient resources for school testing since none of this was pre planned by the district. Today, testers were onsite but unable to test all impacted students. Our already hard working staff and principal as well as parent volunteers have spent hours trying to organize testing for students. This needs to be organized and done at the district level on a routine basis, as other school districts are doing. Given the Delta variant, it is imparative that the district devote resources to test students and staff on a regular basis.

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    E Nathan about 3 years ago

    Strong support for this! Let’s keep everyone safe at the very least until all age kids can get the vaccine.

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    David Gardner about 3 years ago

    This is truly a no-brainer. As a teacher in a school with multiple positive cases in the first few weeks of the school year, it's obvious that testing is needed to ensure secondary and tertiary transmissions are stopped in their tracks. Or at the very least, we have a sense of how quickly Delta is transimitted through our schools. And please make sure the testing is PCR, which we know to be much more accurate than the Antigen testing only that is currently being offered at many OUSD sites.