COVID UPDATE FROM QCA SCHOOL BOARD - 1/07/2021

 

 

As salam alaikum QCA family,

We pray that this email reaches you all in good health and iman.  Obviously, this year has faced many challenges that we have never seen in our lifetime. Alhamdulillah, with the grace of Allah, we have been able to continue our online classes and educating our students.

As we all know, the Covid cases are increasing throughout Texas (with over 1.8 million cases) and many in our community have been affected, no matter how much we try to keep safe. With this in mind, the board has reflected on the possibility of allowing students on campus this quarter, even part-time. As a board, we have to look at the safety of our students, teachers, and administrators at the school.  Therefore, we have consulted an infectious disease specialist to ask what the risks are and how safe it is to allow students and teachers back into the classroom.  We were told to use the COVID-19 Event Risk Assessment Planning Tool, which estimates the chance that at least 1 Covid -19 positive individual will be present at an event, given the size of the event.  If 50 people are at an event (in our case, a school in Dallas or Collin County) there is an 84% chance that 1 person will be Covid positive and if 100 people are present, there is a 97% chance that 1 person is Covid positive. When school is in session, we have about 75 people in the school at one time.  Unfortunately, when a group comes in contact with one individual who is Covid positive, that group should quarantine themselves for 10 days to watch for signs and symptoms to make sure that they themselves do not become infected.  Therefore, with such a high likelihood of one person in our school being positive at some time, we would have to shut down the school for at least 10 days.  The infectious disease specialist also recommends keeping windows open in classrooms to allow proper ventilation, which unfortunately our classrooms do not have.  Also controlling the spread of the disease involves appropriate physical distancing, having a sufficient supply of masks and other personal protective equipment, hand sanitizer, as well as appropriate cleaning and disinfection of classrooms and surfaces.  Even with these precautions, we have seen an increase in cases throughout the metroplex.  For these reasons, currently, we believe that it is in the best interest of the school to continue online classes for this quarter. We will re-evaluate the situation for the next quarter inshaallah.   

Unfortunately, this is the world that we are living in today.  May Allah give us a cure for this pandemic quickly and keep us all healthy and full of iman.  If anyone has any questions, please feel free to contact us at board@myqca.org

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