COVID-19 Mitigation Strategies Matrix

NOTE: On February 21, 2022, the Jaffrey-Rindge Cooperative School Board voted to move the district into the green level of the COVID-19 Mitigation Strategies Matrix. This means that masking will be optional and social distancing will not be required, regardless of school district or community transmission rates. This applies to all locations on district properties. The board will continue to review COVID-19 data trends at its regular school board meetings.

The school board also voted to lessen the communication requirements surrounding positive COVID-19 cases. We will no longer be reporting cases daily via email and social media. Starting Monday, February 28th, you will be able to find the active case numbers for each school in the COVID-19 Mitigation Strategies Matrix on this page. 

Additionally, as of February 25, 2022, the CDC no longer requires individuals to wear masks on school buses. 

On August 16, 2021, the Jaffrey-Rindge Cooperative School Board voted to implement a COVID-19 Mitigation Strategies Matrix. This matrix will be used to determine when individual schools need to implement masking and/or social distancing of three or more feet.

This matrix was created with two main goals in mind: keeping our learners in school and working to keep our learners and staff healthy. Using community transmission and school student illness data allows for us to keep an eye on and to make decisions based on our local community. 

Data for community transmission rates will be taken from the state’s COVID-19 Dashboard. Data on school illnesses will be reported by each school to the SAU office by the end of the school day. 

There are three levels to the COVID-19 Mitigation Strategies Matrix: green, yellow, and red.

Chart of the COVID-19 Mitigation Strategies Matrix

The school district as a whole will be starting out in the yellow. In the yellow level, the district and broader JRCSD community is recognizing a heightened number of COVID-19 cases in the community and/or a heightened number of cases of illness in the school community. Masking is recommended and encouraged  for anyone inside a JRCSD building. Masking is required in the yellow level anytime social distancing of three feet or more cannot be maintained indoors. Recommended masking is also different than optional masking because the district will continually notify staff, families, and learners that wearing a mask is a mitigation strategy that can meaningfully impact levels of community transmission and school absenteeism due to illness, which in turn could help the schools exit the yellow and enter the green portion of the matrix. 

The rules in this matrix only apply to inside settings - there are no recommendations for social distancing or masking for outdoor settings at this time. 

If a change to the matrix is triggered, the district will alert families by the end of the day. A change to the matrix will remain in place for at least five calendar days regardless of any changes to the data - this will allow for a degree of consistency (i.e. not having to mask every other day for a week due to alternating between the yellow and red levels). A school principal, in consultation with a school nurse and the superintendent, can decide to extend a given level beyond the five day period based on the data trends for community transmission and/or student illness. 

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