Nevada Joint Union High School District moving back to full distance learning after Thanksgiving break

November 20, 2020 – Good Afternoon NJUHSD Family,

The health and safety of our students, staff, and community remain our top priority.  As you are aware, earlier this week Nevada County moved into the most restrictive “Purple”  tier of the California Blueprint for a Safer Economy.  The county is experiencing a surge in the number of COVID-19 cases, as well as a significant impact on the availability of testing, and an impact to the effective and timely process of contact tracing.  As a school community, the growing number of cases involving students and staff has considerably strained our school operations due to required quarantining and isolation.

Over the past 24 hours, the District has identified two additional confirmed positive student cases – one student from North Point Academy, and one from Nevada Union (cohort B).  These cases bring our total number of positive student cases in the District up to nine.

This week, we received a recommendation from Nevada County’s Public Health Department, advising schools that close for the Thanksgiving holiday to consider a “pause” to on-campus instruction, and to reinstitute Distance Learning for the month of December.  It is the belief of the public health department that pausing in-person classes for two or more incubation periods will help reduce exposure and circulation of the virus, county-wide.   As a result, the District will take the following action.

1.  All District schools will pause Hybrid Instruction and move to a Full Distance Learning model of instruction, following the Thanksgiving Break (beginning November 30th).

2.  Given the number of positive cases, student/staff instances of quarantine and isolation, and their impact on effective school operations, Nevada Union High School will pause Hybrid Instruction and move to a Full Distance Learning model of instruction, effective immediately (beginning November 23rd).

3.  Further communications surrounding special programs, athletics, and other on-site services and activities will be forthcoming.

The District maintains a commitment to our partnership in supporting the public health and safety of our community and we are taking the above actions accordingly.  We will be in communication with you before the start of the Winter Break regarding the timeline for resuming Hybrid Instruction.

We understand that this news will be received with mixed emotions – relief, discouragement, stress, understanding, and more.  Please know that we continue to make the best decisions we can in the interest of student learning, the safety of our students, staff, and families, and the emotional well-being of all.