TA News

The Ronald McDonald Dental Van will be back the third week in April.

• Please let Nurse Ellen know if you want to sign your child up for teeth cleanings. For students already signed up, parents don’t need to do anything. Their students will be seen automatically. 
• If you’ve been sent enrollment forms, please return them as soon as possible. If they are not completed, students will not receive dental services. 

Health Screenings

• Vision and Hearing are nearly completed for 7th, 9th and 12th graders. 
• You will receive an email if any of the vision or hearing results are abnormal. If you have any questions, please contact Nurse Ellen.

Current illnesses:

• TA is seeing MANY cases of a stomach bug that is lasting 1-3 days.
• There is also an upper respiratory virus with congestion, sore throat, headache, cough, and sometimes low-grade fever. 
• If your child is sick they must stay home until they are all better. 
• A friendly reminder, students with upper respiratory symptoms still need to do a home rapid Covid test. Take home kits are available in the Health Office.

Regarding Covid

Masking is optional as of March 14th. According to the Vermont Department of Health 25% of new Covid cases are the Omicron subvariant BA.2. This past week there has been a slight up-tick in new Covid cases across the state, but we have had no new cases at TA. 

Vermont Department of Health Covid management guidelines changed on 3/14/22:

•  If your child has Covid they need to be out for 5 days (day of diagnosis is day 0) and may return on day 5 if they have no symptoms.
• If a student is exposed to Covid and they are up-to-date on their Covid vaccines (Up to date means that the student has either had their booster or has completed their Pfizer vaccine series within the last five month) they may be in school.
• If they develop symptoms, they should do a Covid test.

For students who are not up-to-date on their vaccines or not vaccinated:

• no earlier than day 4, take two antigen tests 24 hours apart (or longer) OR on day 5 take a LAMP test (available from the Health Office).
• if symptoms develop at any time, students should get tested right away
• during this time, students may attend school
• if you are a close contact, you might choose to wear a mask
  

Sports Screenings post Covid

• A friendly reminder that your child needs Covid sports clearance if they had Covid, the information re: guidelines are found on the TA Health Page on the website.
• All this information is available on TA’s Health Page

War in the Ukraine

As we continue to hear about the civilian suffering in the Ukraine these are three ways to help: there is a UNICEF coin collection box outside the Health Office -THANK YOU to students adding their change, we had $5.26 in donations so that was sent off this week.

Donations can be made to: the International Committee for the Red Cross (https://www.icrc.org/en) and Doctors Without Borders (https://www.doctorswithoutborders.org) both organizations are providing emergency water, food and medical aid in the Ukraine.