School-Level Communicable Disease Management Plan
For School Year 2023-2024
School/District/Program Information
District or Education Service District Name and ID: __Baker 5J School District
School or Program Name: _Baker Web Academy - _Baker Charter Schools
Contact Name and Title: ________Roland Hobson - Superintendent
Contact Phone: 541-519-6225 Contact Email: rhobson@bakercharters.org
Table 1.
Policies, protocols, procedures and plans already in place
Provide hyperlinks to any documents or other resources currently utilized in your school/district. Consider adding a brief description about how each is used within your school.
Plan Types | Hyperlinks and Descriptions |
School District Communicable Disease Management Plan | All health related information for Baker Charter Schools can be found: |
Exclusion Measures Exclusion of students and staff who are diagnosed with certain communicable diseases. | Baker Charter Schools will follow all rules set forth in exclusion measures for any and all diseases outlined by Oregon Health Authority. https://secure.sos.state.or.us/oard/viewSingleRule.action?ruleVrsnRsn=292879 |
Isolation Space Requires a prevention-oriented health services program including a dedicated space to isolate sick students and to provide services for students with special health care needs. | Students who may be sick within one of our centers around the state (Baker City, Eugene, Grants Pass, Bend) will be asked to step outside the facilities. All facilities have covered spaces outside and can be monitored by staff while being properly masked. |
Emergency Plan or Emergency Operations Plan | https://bakercharters.org/health-and-safety BCS updates our emergency safety plan yearly, or when changes occur with differences in personnel, or offices we have closed/opened. |
Mental Health and Wellbeing Plans such as those prepared for Student Investment Account (optional) | BWA employs 7 full time school guidance counselors all around the state. So 1 counselor is responsible for a region, for example Central Oregon is a region where a counselor is located and manages, with the advisory teachers, all of those students. Also online we have 1.8 FTE of Mental Health counselors which the advisory teacher and counselors can refer student to meet with counselors to do one-on-one sessions with them. |
Additional documents reference here: |
SECTION 1. Clarifying Roles and Responsibilities
Identifying roles central to communicable disease management. Clarifying responsibilities related to communicable disease response is a first step in keeping communities healthy and safe. In general, decisions of school health and safety reside with school and district officials. Together with local public health officials, school/district administrators should consult a variety of individuals when making decisions about health and safety in school.
Table 2. Roles and Responsibilities
School planning team members | Responsibilities: | Primary Contact (Name/Title): | Alternative Contact: |
Building Lead / Administrator |
| Roland Hobson - Superintendent Kate Saldana - BEC Principal Jennifer Tracewell - Principal Alex Weseloh - Principal Stephani Rasmussen - Principal Jodi Coleman - Principal | John Martin - Director Shawn Farrens - Director |
School Safety Team Representative (or staff member knowledgeable about risks within a school, emergency response, or operations planning) |
| Shawn Farrens - HR Director | Roland Hobson - Superintendent |
Health Representative (health aid, administrator, school/district nurse, ESD support) |
| Baker County Health Department Nancy Staten | |
School Support Staff as needed (transportation, food service, maintenance/custodial) |
| N/A | |
Communications Lead (staff member responsible for ensuring internal/external messaging is completed) |
| Roland Hobson - Superintendent Kate Saldana - BEC Principal | Shawn Farrens - HR Director |
District Level Leadership Support (staff member in which to consult surrounding a communicable disease event) |
| Kate Saldana - BEC BWA Principals Jodi Coleman Stephani Rasmussen Shawn Farrens Stephanie Hedin John Martin Jennifer Tracewell Alex Weseloh Dawn Bennett | |
Main Contact within Local Public Health Authority (LPHA) |
| Nancy Staten | |
Others as identified by team |
Section 2. Equity and Continuity of Education
Preparing a plan that centers equity and supports mental health
Preparing a school to manage a communicable disease case or event requires an inclusive and holistic approach to protect access to in-person learning for all students. In this section suggested resources are offered to help prepare for communicable disease management while centering an equitable and caring response.
Identify existing district or school plans and tools that can be utilized when centering equity in prevention, response, and recovery from incidents of outbreaks (e.g., district or school equity plans/stances/lenses/decision tools, Equity Committee or Team protocols, district or school systems for including student voice, existing agreements or community engagement or consultation models, Tribal Consultation[1], etc.)
Our goal in Baker Charters Schools, Baker Web Academy and Baker Early College, has always been to try and build an individualized program for each student who enrolls in our program. Students are monitored and tracked by advisory and grading teachers. Educators, and staff, within our school can utilize our learner management system (Canvas) to have real time data on every student in our program. Regionally educators work to closely monitor 9th and 12th graders to ensure course completion and graduation. Counselors are also involved when students start to regress on their work completion. Entering them into these conversations helps our students remove barriers, changing courses, enhancing skill sets, talk about lagging skills, and anything that could help a student find success.
Suggested Resources:
- Equity Decision Tools for School Leaders
- Community Engagement Toolkit
- Tribal Consultation Toolkit
Table 3. Centering Educational Equity
OHA/ODE Recommendation(s) | Response: |
Describe how you will ensure continuity of instruction for students who may miss school due to illness. | Students within our school work the majority of their school time from their homes. Progress of work can be adjusted to meet the needs of the student if they are to become ill and have to miss school days. Included in that adjustment can be working on breaks and weekends. |
Describe how you identify those in your school setting that are disproportionately impacted by communicable disease and which students and families may need differentiated or additional support. | Identification of students who are impacted by communicable disease is fairly easy due to the nature of our setting. Students are in regular contact with advisory teachers and can inform them about their illness, and update frequently when they are back to feeling up to doing school work. |
Describe the process by which the school will implement a differentiated plan for those that are disproportionately impacted, historically underserved or at higher risk of negative impacts or complications related to communicable disease. | Students in underserved groups have the opportunity to work with their advisory teacher to help adjust, or make a new plan, with different due dates and adjustments to their curriculum if communicable disease presents an issue within their time at Baker Charter Schools. |
Describe what support, training or logistics need to be in place to ensure that the named strategies are understood, implemented, and monitored successfully. | All students are required to be meeting 2 times per week over the phone, text, or technology. Also required to have 2 times a month meetings on video conferencing, or in person. Students are tracked and monitored where they are in all of their courses. Monitoring what assignments have been completed and ones which are coming due. Advisory teachers meet and discuss these items regularly. Grading teachers are also monitoring courses and progress for their assigned grading loads. |
Section 3. Communicable Disease Outbreak Prevention and Response:
Implementing mitigation activities, responding to periods of increased transmission, resuming baseline level mitigation, and debriefing actions to improve the process
Planning for and implementing proactive health and safety mitigation measures assists schools in reducing communicable disease transmission within the school environment for students, staff, and community members. Communicable disease, including norovirus, flu and COVID-19, will continue to circulate in our communities and our schools. Schools will utilize different mitigation measures based on local data, and observation of what is happening in their schools (e.g., transmission within their facilities and communities.) In the following section, teams will document their school’s approach to the CDC, OHA and ODE advised health and safety measures at baseline, during increased transmission.
Suggested Resources:
- Communicable Disease Guidance for Schools which includes information regarding:
- Symptom-Based Exclusion Guidelines (pages 8-12)
- Transmission Routes (pages 29-32)
- Prevention or Mitigation Measures (pages 5-6)
- School Attendance Restrictions and Reporting (page 33)
- CDC Guidance for COVID-19 Prevention in K-12 Schools
- Supports for Continuity of Services
Table 4. Communicable Disease Mitigation Measures
OHA/ODE Recommendation(s) Layered Health and Safety Measures | Describe what mitigating measures the school will implement to reduce and respond to the spread of communicable disease and protect in-person instruction? |
Immunizations | CDC, OHA, and ODE recommend COVID-19 vaccination for all eligible individuals. Please include whether your school will offer COVID-19 vaccine clinics or notices about where to access vaccines in your community. Shots are required by law for children in attendance at public and private schools, preschools, child care facilities, and Head Start programs in Oregon. Nearly every place that provides care for a child outside the home requires shots or a medical or nonmedical exemption to stay enrolled. |
Face Coverings | No longer an OHA requirement. BCS will follow all OHA/ODE Requirements if pandemic levels return as we return to school |
Isolation | BCS ask all families to stay home with any symptoms of any communicable diseases. In our centers we have the ability to isolate students in an outdoor area, while under supervision from a staff member. |
Symptom Screening | BCS will implement basic screening of students who enter all facilities which we operate. Also use the same kinds of screenings while on field trips/activities. |
COVID-19 Diagnostic Testing | OHA offers schools a diagnostic testing program to all public and private K-12 schools in Oregon. Please indicate whether your school will offer diagnostic testing. |
Airflow and Circulation | Airflow within all settings at BCS have been looked at by HVAC professionals to ensure quality airflow. Air purifiers are available at all centers if an employee deems necessary to use one at their discretion. |
Cohorting | n/a |
Physical Distancing | n/a |
Hand Washing | Signs in restroom areas will be posted to ensure students/faculty can view in plain sight the importance and technique of good hand washing etiquette. |
Cleaning and Disinfection | All BCS buildings are cleaned and disinfected on a routine basis. |
Training and Public Health Education | Baker School District, as we are their charter school, delineates a plan with communicating to staff, families, and community regarding communicable disease related information which could affect the labs, field trips, and activities. |
Training exercises are essential to preparedness ensuring individuals understand their role in a communicable disease event. Exercises can also help identify gaps in the planning, thereby building upon and strengthening the plan over time. Schools, districts, and ESDs should schedule to exercise this plan annually and when any revisions are made to update the plan. The plan, or component(s) of the plan, can be tested through conversations, practice exercises, or other activities.
INSERT THE LINK where this plan is available for public viewing.
Date Last Updated: Aug. 24, 2023 Date Last Practiced: August 25th, 2023
[1] Tribal Consultation is a separate process from stakeholder engagement; consultation recognizes and affirms tribal rights of self-government and tribal sovereignty, and mandates state government to work with American Indian nations on a government-to-government basis.