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Safety measures
Anoka-Hennepin Schools will follow Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) guidelines regarding safety measures provided in schools. The safest environments will be made possible through cooperation from students and staff in alignment with the following measures:
- Limited building access to visitors
- Passive temperature screening
- Passive barriers and signage
- Social distancing
- Face coverings
- Classroom management/desks
- Hand hygiene
- Touchless meal delivery
- Disinfection and cleaning
- Case management
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Limited building access to visitors
Access for parents/guardians and volunteers will be limited in the school day during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Because visitors are limited, the addition of plastic barriers near front office areas is not being pursued. Students and employees will use other safety measures such as social distancing instead. Plastic barriers are in place in some instances. -
Passive health screening
Anoka-Hennepin will use passive screening to determine fever or illness of students, employees and visitors. Each visitor (including students and employees) is expected to monitor their health conditions and not enter the buildings if they’re demonstrating symptoms of COVID-19. Signs are posted on entry and bus doors with directions on what symptoms to look for.
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Passive barriers and signage
Anoka-Hennepin will coordinate a system to direct safe behaviors using passive barriers such as floor markings along with signage to communicate safety measures and expected behaviors to protect public health.
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Signage: What does the school/site signage look like?
Here is a listing of the current signage being utilized in schools/sites:
- What does a hybrid learning school look like?
- What doea a hybrid learning classroom look like?
- Am I well enough for school?
- Passive screening
- Illness and quarantine guidelines
- Safety measures
- Floor decal
- Face coverings
- Handwashing
- Air filtration, ventilation
- Elevators
- Stairwells and narrow hallways
- Desk not in use
- Bathroom not in use
- Bus riding procedures
- Bus seating
- Meal procedures
- Gyms
- Locker rooms
- Playgrounds
- Fields
- Digital signs
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Social distancing
Maintaining a six foot distance between persons is the most effective safety measure. Schools will include visible reminders and encourage a culture that supports social distancing. Employees will be monitoring student arrivals and dismissals to remind students not to congregate.
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Social distancing: Can you ensure social distancing on buses?
The Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) has provided guidance that school buses should run at 50% capacity in order to maximize social distancing while simultaneously meeting the needs of transporting students to and from school. The six foot distance is not a requirement, although plans to balance bus occupancy and social distancing is a planning assumption. Buses will operate with windows partially down, whenever practicable, to ensure increased ventilation and air flow.
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Face coverings
Face coverings are required by all who enter district schools or facilities following the direction from the state and a School Board policy. These can be paper or disposable, cloth, scarf, bandana or a religious face covering. Clear plastic shields are also allowed under certain conditions. Temporary removal of coverings to eat, participate in activities or just take a short break are also acceptable. Please review these commonly asked questions for additional information on this FAQ page.
It is the goal of the district to safely operate schools, promoting a culture of health and safety amongst students and staff using all the health and safety protocols in place.
Remember to maintain physical distance of at least six feet as much as possible. That is our best protection.
These FAQ apply within the premises of student transportation, child care, preschool, and K-12 grade schools including the Educational Service Center and other district facilities. -
Face coverings: How do I wear a face covering?
Wash hands prior to putting on and after removing the face covering, following the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s How to Wear and Remove Your Face Covering guidelines. Be careful to not touch your eyes, nose or mouth while removing the face covering.
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Face coverings: How do I store my reusable cloth face covering?
Store face coverings in a manner that prevents it from being mistakenly used by another person and in a dry location away from external contamination. For cloth face coverings, carefully fold it so the contaminated outside is folded inward and against itself. Place the face covering in an appropriate place and wash your hands.
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Face coverings: What to do when eating or drinking while wearing a face covering?
You should remove and store your face covering to eat and drink. Ensure social distancing while eating and drinking. To prevent self-contamination, do not pull down the face covering or leave it on in any way while eating or drinking. Students/employees are to wash hands prior to putting on and after removing the face covering, following the How to Wear and Remove Your Face Covering guidelines. Face coverings should be washed and dried if visibly soiled.
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Face coverings: Can I pull down my face covering to talk to someone?
No. It is important to keep your face covering appropriately in place over the nose and mouth to provide the intended protection. Try to avoid manipulating the face covering as much as possible once it is on.
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Face coverings: What should I do if I accidentally touch my face covering?
You should perform hand hygiene immediately after touching the cloth face covering.
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Face coverings: Are students required to wear face covers?
Yes, students grades kindergarten through 12 should wear face covers.
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Face coverings: Is there an age requirement?
The executive order applies to everyone 5 years of age and older. Those under the age of 2 should not wear a face cover ever due to risk of suffocation.
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Face coverings: Are students and employees required to provide a medical waiver from a licensed healthcare provider if unable to wear a face covering?
Individuals who cannot tolerate a face covering due to a medical condition or disability related condition may be permitted to utilize alternative options such as a face shield or other reasonable accommodation. The Superintendent or designee shall have discretion to determine whether an employee, parent, or community member qualifies for a reasonable accommodation and the accommodation to be provided.
For a student with a medical condition or disability, the student’s school health services staff or education team (i.e. IEP team, Section 504 team, health plan team) will determine whether the student qualifies for a reasonable accommodation and the accommodation to be provided. As a condition to granting a reasonable accommodation, the school district may require an individual to provide a physician’s note and/or other relevant information or with respect to the condition or circumstance. Requests for reasonable accommodations from the face covering requirement shall be assessed on a case-by-case basis in accordance with applicable federal and state law. -
Face coverings: If a parent/guardian will not provide a face covering, can their student still attend the school?
Yes. Anoka-Hennepin is required by the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) to provide face covers for those that don’t have one.
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Face coverings: If a student is unable to put their own face covering back on, are employees expected to help put it back on even though it doesn’t maintain the required social distance of six feet?
The student needs to put the face covering back on themselves. Employees can help direct with verbal cues.
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Face coverings: MDH recommends children only wear face coverings if they can reliably wear, remove and handle them. If employees see students unable to do this, can Anoka-Hennepin determine if there is an increased risk of exposure by the improper handling of the face covering and not require the student to wear the face cover?
Yes. Employees in this situation should contact their supervisor who will consult with the Director of Health Services to make a final determination.
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Face coverings: Can staff remove face covers in private offices?
Yes, employees can remove a face cover while working alone in a closed office or cubicle with walls above face height, as long as social distancing is maintained.
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Face coverings: Can students remove face covers?
Students may remove face coverings temporarily to engage in certain activities that make wearing a cover difficult or impractical, such as eating, drinking, participating in physical activity, playing instruments, when performing or presenting, when the face covering will get wet, when receiving services from a nurse or other service provider that would be difficult to perform with a face cover. Remember to maintain social distance in these instances.
Students in child care and pre-kindergarten may also remove their face cover when in an indoor classroom that is confined to one group or cohort.
Face shields may be used as an alternative to face coverings for students who are unable to tolerate a face covering due to developmental, behavioral, and/or medical conditions. For teachers, when they may impede the education process (need to return to use of face cover when the education process is complete). For employees providing direct care when a face covering would interfere with the delivery of those services, and for students kindergarten through eighth grade when wearing a face covering is otherwise problematic for the student. -
Face coverings: How long will the mandate be in effect?
There is no specified end date. It remains in effect until the state’s peacetime emergency ends or the mandate is canceled by a proper authority.
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Face coverings: Who is exempt from the executive order?
People with certain disabilities, medical or mental health conditions preventing them from wearing a face cover can be exempt, although there is no specified list of excused medical problems. People who cannot remove a face covering or face shield without assistance or who cannot tolerate them due to developmental, medical or behavioral health conditions should not wear a face covering or shield. If sleeping, a face cover should not be worn.
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Face coverings: If a student or employee is not wearing a face cover what steps should employees take?
Remind the person to please put their face cover on. The district should not discipline, physically restrain or remove people in any way that is outside normal practices.
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Face coverings: Who is tasked with enforcing the mandate?
It is the responsibility of the Anoka-Hennepin administration to make sure students are complying.
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Face coverings: Should you confront someone who is not wearing a face cover?
Not unless you are an administrator responsible for student and employee compliance. If not, simply keep your distance.
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Face coverings: Are you required to wear a face cover while riding a bus?
Yes.
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Face coverings: Is a mesh face cover or one with openings, holes, gaps in the design acceptable?
No. The executive order prohibits face covers with valves, holes or gaps in them.
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Face coverings: Are half shields that come up from the chin to the nose area acceptable?
No. According to MDH, a face shield must cover the forehead, extend below the chin and wrap around the side of the face.
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Classroom management/desks
Classrooms will limit capacity to the MDH and CDC guidelines. The goal will be to create as much space as possible for each student. There will be minimal sharing of high touch materials. Each student will keep school supply items for individual use.
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Hand hygiene
Anoka-Hennepin will encourage hand washing using soap and hot water for 20 seconds on a regular basis. Soap and water are the best way to clean your hands according to the CDC. Students and employees will use existing hand washing stations in schools. The district will not resource additional portable hand washing stations.
School employees can provide hand sanitizing wipes or hand sanitizer to students when soap and water are not available or feasible. Employees can access these supplies through the warehouse at their workplace. Use is to be supervised by an adult.
It has been the practice of staff to request hand lotion as a resource from the district. Individual employees and students may also bring their own lotion to school for personal use
Anoka-Hennepin will resource gloves for students or employees as needed. -
Touchless meal delivery
Staff will serve meals to students, eliminating the need for students to handle common utensils. The use of pin pads for payment will be eliminated. Students will receive an identification card, which will be used in conjunction with a barcode scanner to process payments. Meal service will utilize social distancing strategies such as staggered release and adjusted seating, and will be structured to limit time in the cafeterias.
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Enhanced disinfection and cleaning
Anoka-Hennepin’s professional maintenance employees will coordinate enhanced disinfection and cleaning of high-touch areas such as restrooms, lunchrooms, and door handles. Students will not be present or permitted to use chemicals for disinfection due to safety concerns.
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Disinfection and cleaning: How are we disinfecting, sanitizing and cleaning our schools to ensure student and employee safety?
Prior to the COVID-19 Pandemic, Anoka-Hennepin’s custodial staff used a hospital-grade disinfectant called QT Plus on a daily basis to disinfect surfaces. This product is Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)-approved, non-damaging to surfaces, and it effectively kills bacteria and viruses.
Since March, custodial staff have shifted duties and responsibilities to focus on more frequent disinfection of surfaces throughout the day, in order to minimize the spread of bacteria and viruses. This strategy proved effective at sites providing child care to Tier 1 workers in the spring, and this strategy will continue when students return to school.
Because of the increased volume of students and staff who will be entering our schools once schools resume, teachers and classrooms will be provided safety kits. These kits will include a spray bottle filled with restaurant quality sanitizing solution, microfiber cloths, and hand sanitizer. Maintaining the physical distancing of more than six feet remains the most effective method for mitigating the spread of COVID-19 according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH). Frequent handwashing and/or sanitizing is also a highly effective method for preventing the spread of COVID-19. Anoka-Hennepin is committed to keeping surfaces safe and promoting best practices that each individual can take to utilize the most effective strategies for student and staff safety.
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Disinfection and cleaning: If students eat or snack at their desk, are the cleaning products safe for food contact surfaces?
Yes. One of the reasons for selecting the specific cleaning product used, was the recognition that students eat and snack at their desks. Arsenal #25 Sanitizer is the same product restaurants use on food preparation surfaces and dining tables. And unlike detergent soap or hospital-grade disinfectants, Arsenal #25 Sanitizer can be used as a cleaner to remove contaminants without being rinsed a second time with water.
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Disinfection and cleaning: Why doesn’t the district provide the district’s hospital-grade disinfectant in the classroom cleaning kit?
Multiple reasons. First, to use disinfectants properly, disposable gloves would need to be sent to all classrooms and gloves are currently in short supply.
Second, to use disinfectants properly you need to do a secondary clean rinse, which seems impractical to ask employees to do a multiple-step process where water is not always available in each classroom.
Third, using a combination of Arsenal #25 and a microfiber towel, the cleaned surface can air dry. Studies have also that shown microfiber can remove contaminants more effectively than cloth towels.
Finally, repeated over-use of disinfectants on surfaces can lead to other health concerns.
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Disinfection and cleaning: Why was the specific classroom sanitizing solution chosen?
There is acknowledgement that the cleaning solution used is not a disinfectant. The logic for using the cleaning solution is layered, and summarized below:
- The current product selected is safe for cleaning food surfaces and does not require personal protective equipment (gloves) for use. When used in connection with a microfiber towel it effectively cleans a desktop.
- The incidence rate of transmission from surfaces is low, yet there has been a strong desire of many to have the opportunity to clean their spaces once students leave the space.
- If the district supplied a disinfectant we would also have to provide PPE (disposable gloves) which are in short supply.
- Overuse of disinfectants can have a negative health effect.
- The solution provided, in conjunction with microfiber towels, lifts and holds dirt and bacteria. These fibers include both positive charged polyester fibers and negative charged nylon fibers that actually attract and pull up surface contaminants from the area being cleaned.
- The solution does not replace the most effective approaches for health and safety in a space which include: wearing a face covering (most transmission occurs through “aerosol spray”), social distancing, washing hands, using hand sanitizer when handwashing is not practical, refraining from touching face, eyes, nose and mouth, or face covering, and taking precautions with regard to limiting physical contact with “high touch” areas such as door handles, pencil sharpeners, railings, and drinking fountains.
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Disinfecting and cleaning: Why is the use of a microfiber towel so important?
Microfiber lifts and holds dirt and bacteria. These fibers include both positive charged polyester fibers and negative charged nylon fibers that actually attract and pull up surface contaminants from the area being cleaned.
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Disinfection and cleaning: What laundry detergent is used on the microfiber towels to clean them?
A non-phosphate environmentally preferable oxygen-based bleach as recommended by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Over 13 sites across the district have been set up to launder cleaning supplies. Employees are asked to turn in soiled laundry on a daily basis so that the Buildings/Grounds department can process the towels and get them back out to schools.
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Disinfecting and cleaning: Can I pick up the coronavirus from desktops?
It may be possible for a person to get COVID-19 by touching a surface or object that has the virus on it and then touching his or her own mouth, nose or eyes. This is not thought to be the primary means of transmission of the virus, but more is still being learned on how the virus spreads. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the virus is thought to spread mainly from person-to-person through respiratory droplets produced when an infected person coughs, sneezes or talks. These droplets can land in the mouths or noses of people who are nearby and inhaled into the lungs. Cleaning can be one layer in the fight against the spread of COVID-19, but studies in preventing the spread place greater weight on wearing face coverings, practicing social distancing and washing hands properly.
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Disinfection and cleaning: Can you ensure that buses will be cleaned and disinfected?
Anoka-Hennepin’s buses will be disinfected regularly to ensure student and staff safety using products that are safe, effective, and approved by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). It’s important to remember that students and staff should practice good handwashing hygiene prior to and after entering and exiting any spaces, including vehicles.
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Disinfection and cleaning: What has Anoka-Hennepin done to their ventilation systems to ensure student and employee safety during COVID 19?
Anoka-Hennepin has been investing in updated ventilation systems for more than 20 years, specifically to increase the amount of outside air circulated through school sites.
The district’s ventilation systems are designed to provide at least 20% outside air in schools/sites at any given time. Filtration systems clean both outside and inside air continuously. This system does not allow any air to bypass the filter, and our filters are changed three times per year.
These systems serve every classroom and common area at each school/site and they are designed to perform a minimum full volume air exchange at least seven times per hour.
To ensure students and employees enter the school buildings with fresh air in place, all air systems are now being purged daily beginning two hours before occupancy as one more step in ensuring clean, exchanged air for all schools/sites.
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Disinfection and cleaning: I’m not sure I believe that the air in the spaces I go is exchanged and/or filtered. How can I get proof of this?
All of our building supervisors (lead custodians) can access information on each air handler to determine the cubic feet per minute (CFM) exchange per hour, per room. The report of the performance of all of district air handling units was performed by a third party.
Air filtration at all sites ensures best in class systems are in place. Currently, air at all schools is cleaned by MERV 8 filters at a minimum. These will all be upgraded to MERV 11 filters on older air handling units. All newer systems have a minimum of MERV 13 filtration, and many exchange air through two or three filters per unit.
If someone wishes to see the filters, they can be made available for viewing by building supervisors.
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Disinfection and cleaning: The air is hot and stuffy. I’m worried that there is no air flow and the ventilation is poor. Is this true?
Sometimes people misinterpret hot air for unexchanged air. It's actually the opposite in buildings that have not been fully outfitted with dehumidification or air conditioning systems. Being as the air is exchanged, some schools/sites (those without dehumidification/air conditioning) may have higher temperatures because the warmer outside air is coming in as the system is set to do so. So some schools’ systems exchange the air, but don’t cool it. Others can exchange air and cool the air. The air is clean and safe under each situation.
The schools/sites with dehumidification systems circulate the air, extract the humidity, and pull the air past cooled water pipes. This drops the temperature without compromising air exchange during hot months. This is why we have a multi-year plan to outfit all schools/sites with dehumidification systems. The ultimate goal is comfortable temperatures in filtered, air-exchanged spaces.
Many air conditioned spaces actually recycle cooled air to avoid high energy costs. This is good from an efficiency standpoint, but it is not good from the standpoint of maintaining a constant balance of refreshed air. This is why it’s important to not mistake hot air for unfiltered, unexchanged air.
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Disinfection and cleaning: I’ve heard HEPA filters are the best out there. Does Anoka-Hennepin use HEPA filters?
All Anoka-Hennepin facilities have filtration, which is very good filtration for their intended purpose. However, school ventilation systems are not typically designed to use HEPA filtration because it may reduce air flow and the number of air exchanges.
The district will have a minimum of MERV 11 filtration at every site when the 2020-21 school year begins. Many of our unit ventilators have MERV 13 filters and an additional two MERV 8 filters, thus forcing exchanged air through three filters. The district is exploring additional options to enhance our schools/sites’ capacity to inactivate viruses and allergens.
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Disinfection and cleaning: Can I have more context on the air ventilation and filtration video?
Some greater context for the air ventilation and filtration video:
- “Instructional spaces” referenced in the video are classrooms.
- With regard to HVAC and recycling of air, classrooms have specific “design standards” set by the district.
- Square footage and available air volume contribute to air exchange design standards.
- Classroom circulation design standards are set at seven circulations.
- Large spaces like the auditorium, field house and cafeteria (while they may be used as instructional spaces) have different air exchange rates due to available air volume.
Scenario: Take 30 people and put them in a classroom. The available air volume within the square footage of this classroom is different than if you take that same group and bring them to the field house, as the field house has a significantly higher available air volume, requiring less need for circulation of the air within the space.
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Case management
Education on COVID-19 will occur for both students and employees. Staff and students will self monitor for symptoms throughout the day. Those who become ill during the day will report to health services, and be isolated and evaluated. They will either go home or return to class after assessment. Self isolation and quarantine per the MDH guidelines will be followed. Notifications to the community will occur after consultation with the MDH. Mental health concerns will be addressed through risk assessment and referral as appropriate.