Dear Sylvania Schools Families,
 
As promised, we continue to make every effort to keep our parents apprised of the ever changing conditions related to COVID and its impact on our schools. We are again providing an update regarding the potential pivot between instructional models due to the increase in COVID cases and a rise in positivity rates in Sylvania as well as throughout Lucas County. 
 
As previously mentioned in various communications, Sylvania Schools has an established criteria that will determine when we will transition between learning models. As a district, we will use data from the Lucas County Health Department along with our established metric (link to our criteria) to determine our next steps. The table below reflects the most recent rise in data.
 
Thursday, 10/29	159.45 cases per 100K	7% Positivity Rate	
Thursday, 11/5	 239.99 cases per 100K	8% Positivity Rate	
Monday, 11/9	239.99 cases per 100K*	9% Positivity Rate**	
* Ohio Department of Health updates cases/100K on Thursdays. This number reflects the current data available. Cases per 100K will be updated on 11/12. 
** Lucas County Health Department updates data on Mondays or Tuesdays each week. This number reflects the current data. The Positivity Rate will be updated on 11/16 or 11/17.
Currently, we will remain on our hybrid model.  In order to pivot to a remote learning model we need to meet our threshold of 200+ new cases per 100K within the last 14 days AND greater than 10% Positivity Rate. Hence, if our positivity data rises above 10% we will pivot to a remote learning model. Please note, we will not pivot to different learning model midweek and we will provide our parents with a minimum one week notice prior to transitioning to a remote learning plan.
Understanding our families need time to prepare for this potential change, we will communicate again with families on Friday, November 13. At that time, if we need to move to our remote learning plan, we will still give a week's notice to allow our teachers to bring closure to current instruction while also establishing learning expectations for the upcoming remote learning plan. These efforts combined will help ensure a smooth transition for our students, teachers and parents alike. Again, we share this information now so that families may begin to make childcare arrangements for the future.
 
Sylvania Schools acknowledges this information may be disappointing for some of our families, while not nearly timely enough for others. This reality has proven to be a difficult terrain for our schools and community as we understand the dichotomy of our decision.  
 
Again, our next update will be provided on Friday, November 13th. In the meantime, please help us reduce the spread of COVID so that we can fully return our students to school sooner than later. Let’s work together and practice social distancing, wear a mask and wash our hands to help keep our schools and our community safe. We are all in this together.
 
Resource:
Sylvania Schools criteria with links to the source data (link)