July 2022 – PUSD COVID Communication

Over the past two school years, PUSD and our community have learned a lot about how the COVID virus spreads, how to prevent becoming infected by COVID, and the effects of COVID infections. 

Families may take the following factors into consideration as they evaluate the risks of COVID infection for their family.

• Vaccines and boosters are now widely available for people of all ages. 
• People may optionally wear face coverings. 
• Physical distancing can help prevent spread.
• Testing is now more available when symptoms arise to help prevent further exposure. 
• Many people have built up natural immunity to the virus by previously contracting COVID. 
• Families may choose an online option for their child through PUSD Everywhere to avoid exposure. 
• The current prevalent variant appears to be less severe than previous COVID variants.
• Immunocompromised people or people with underlying medical issues can be affected more severely.

With all this information and options for families, PUSD will discontinue contact tracing and quarantining close contacts. Because students are generally in close proximity to each other in classrooms and the current variant is very contagious, we recommend families get their children vaccinated and boosted in accordance with CDC Guidelines and encourage face coverings indoors. 

We will, however, continue to enforce isolation guidelines as published by the Arizona State Health Department for staff and students who test positive. We respectfully ask families to keep students home when they are sick and/or test positive for COVID and to contact the school through phone or email so that teachers can be informed that the student will be absent for 5 days or so. See revised isolation guidelines. 

PUSD will also continue to: 

• Track positive cases on our dashboard to keep families informed of COVID cases in our schools. 
• Monitor for sick children in the classroom and refer them to the nurse for evaluation. 
• Encourage hand sanitation and sanitizing high-touch surfaces.
• Communicate apparent outbreaks or uncontrolled spread in classrooms, so families can choose the best options for their children. In these cases, we will implement mitigation measures when feasible such as physically distancing