*****FOR OUTDOOR ACTIVITIES ONLY*****Update  4/7/2021:

Masks will be optional for students for outdoor recess. Masks will also be optional for outdoor classroom activities like PE, walking field trips, etc., if 6ft physical distancing can be maintained.

Staff, volunteers, and visitors are required to wear masks at all times. Handwashing and 6ft physical distancing should continue to be taught and emphasized in all grades.

Note: If a school is experiencing in-school transmission or high levels of COVID-19 community transmission, this option may be temporarily suspended, and masks will be required at all times.

Sports, MOA’s and facility usage agreements require individual mitigation plans approved through the KPBSD Planning and Operations Department (find the update: KPBSD SmartStart plan pages 8-9)

  KPBSD COVID web hub: covid19.kpbsd.org  

Many of you have asked how our former exchange student and college scholarship recipient, Winston Ajakaye, is doing. Winston currently is in Anchorage where he is taking Kenai Peninsula College/Kachemak Bay Campus courses virtually. His goal is to work while he is doing his coursework. We recently received this letter from Winston:

Dear Rotary Club of Homer-Kachemak Bay,

I am honored to be one of the recipients of a Rotary college scholarship. Thank you for your generous support in my educational journey during this unprecedented time.

Growing up in an economy less stable than that of the United States and the effect of the pandemic on the already unstable economy not only has created financial and academic challenges but also has helped me appreciate more the value of a college education.

I had just begun my undergraduate career as a freshman at Kenai Peninsula College/UAA, when the Covid-19 pandemic was at its peak and caused the worldwide lockdown. This pandemic created a lot of uncertainty and fear to my plans. The scholarship gave me more time to carefully redirect and rearrange my educational plans, while reducing the worries brought by the financial challenges and giving me more time to focus on my academics.

I can already report that my academic journey is off to a great start and my dream is gradually becoming reality. My plan at this stage is to complete my pre-requisite courses for an engineering major at KPC, then advance to UAA to complete my undergraduate degree. I consider myself fortunate to be able to have had this opportunity.

Volunteering in Homer during my exchange year, I enjoyed helping people in the community and I’ve learned a lot about community services. I have also been fortunate to benefit from community services. I also enjoyed helping people learn about community services available to them.

My educational pursuits would not be possible without the generous support from scholarship sponsors. The Rotary Club of Homer-Kachemak Bay has been a very vital influence in my young adult life, from Youth Exchange to my college. I hope when I become an engineer sometime in the future, I’ll have more of an ability to be able to serve and help the less fortunate and under-represented social groups like Rotary has done for me. Thank you for enabling this opportunity!

Sincerely,

Winston

•••••

Winston’s letter is a good reminder that the deadline for Rotary Scholarship applications is coming up — April 15 — and, so far, there is one applicant. If you know of someone who could benefit from some scholarship money (the scholarship funds are available to anyone with a high school diploma enrolling in college or vocational programs), please direct them to school counselors. The information also has been posted on the borough’s scholarship page. If you need more information, please contact Cinda Martin, chair of our club’s Vocational Committee. She can be reached at 907-399-4574 or duggansdiva@hotmail.com.

Reminder: Next week will be a Club Assembly. We’ll hear from all the committee chairs, as well as our treasurer. Not sure where you fit in with Rotary’s different areas of service? The club assembly is a great way to get to know what our club is doing and find a place where you can best use your talents.

Hoping everyone is having a wonderful week.

With gratitude,

Lori

Lori Evans

2020-21 President

Rotary Club of Homer-Kachemak Bay

Invocation -- Milli Martin

Speakers and Invocators are needed from April through June!  Including next week!

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Request From Haven House

March 31 Update

Note: Pfizer vaccine is authorized only for individuals 16 years of age and older, and Moderna and Janssen vaccines are authorized only for individuals 18 years of age and older.

Who is eligible? Anyone living or working in Alaska is eligible.

Vaccine Information:

Information about COVID-19 vaccines approved by FDA Emergency Use Authorization:

• mRNA vaccines
  • Pfizer-Biontech -approved for 16 years and up
  • Moderna  – approved for 18 years and up
• Viral Vector vaccines
  • Janssen (Johnson & Johnson)  – approved for 18 years and up

Getting your second dose?

• If you already got your first dose at a mass vaccination event, there is no need to make another appointment. You reserved your appointment when you got your first dose.
• If you have questions about your second dose appointment, or need to cancel, call 235-0235.
• Saturday April 10 is the second dose clinic at Homer High School for those who got their first dose on Friday March 12.
• Saturday April 17 is the second dose clinic at Homer High School for those who got their first dose on Saturday, March 27.

 Vaccines are not available at Homer Medical Center or South Peninsula Family Care Clinic at this time.

Check back here for regular updates.

See the map of vaccine locations statewide

“Many staff have asked, ‘When will we be able to be vaccinated?’ It was complete sweetness when I could answer, ‘now.’ It gives light at the end of the tunnel that has taken a year to get through. Covid-19 is so much more than physical illness; it is mental and emotional as well. As a school nurse, the mental and emotional aspect that I have seen and experienced has come from not only students, but their parents and guardians, and from our staff. Working the clinic on Friday was amazing! Each person who came in showed excitement, relief, joy and of course, a few with anxiety, as they took what they feel is the first step to normalcy. A KPBSD teacher and his wife told me, ‘We truly felt that the experience was well-run, instilled confidence, and dripped of professionalism both from the staff and toward the patients.’”

–Dixie St John, RN, Kenai Middle School Nurse

    Pegge Erkeneff, KPBSD Director of Communications, Community, and Government Relations reflects:    

“This afternoon, Friday, February 26, 2021, across the Kenai Peninsula, about 320 school staff received their first vaccine, which will be followed up in three weeks by dose two, on March 19, 2021. Two weeks after that, they will be considered fully vaccinated. Three clinics were happening simultaneously in Seward, Soldotna, Homer. After school hours. At the central peninsula clinic, at old Soldotna Prep school, some thoughts from me:

♥️ Friday afternoon, sleet turns to snow, school nurses, city of Soldotna staff, office of emergency management friends, the local pharmacist, volunteers, all coordinated, and now welcome people who’ve been showing up for a year to keep teaching our next generation, and schools operating. People who choose to receive their first vaccine dose arrive

♥️ to the right of me the parking lot is full on busy with arrivals and departures

♥️ inside: kindness, trepidation, relief, reflection

♥️ one year ago I could never have imagined this scenario. For me, for many years, this parking lot has been a place of school visits, and stories. Or daily fire briefings at incident command in summer months

♥️ I received Pfizer vaccine dose one ten days ago, so today I showed up to be a witness and storyteller, and celebrate a community of effort

♥️ I stood here, slung my big camera over my right shoulder (first time in nearly 10 months), unzipped my pocket to iPhone catch this snowy sign 

… 

and walked into a place of hope.”

KPBSD Nursing Supervisor, Iris Nurse, RN, BSN, explains:

“Because natural immunity cannot be proven past 90 days except in cases of severe disease, herd immunity will only be achievable when enough people get vaccinated. As with pandemics in the past like small pox and polio, vaccination is a key tool in stopping this Covid19 pandemic. The challenge now is getting people vaccinated quickly, before the virus can produce any more new variants that might be resistant.

Thirty-five of our employees signed up for the vaccination clinic in Seward on Friday. Everyone over age 50 was able to get into a previous clinic.

In Homer, we had about 87 people register for the February 26, 2021, clinic. Several of our school nurses will be staffing that clinic. I sincerely thank South Peninsula Hospital for their excellent effort to vaccinate people, and offer clinics.

In the central peninsula, ten nurses and three other staff will help at the Soldotna Prep clinic. And nurse friends are joining in like Nurse Tami from Public Health, and Nurse Tracy who retired from Soldotna High School, and Nurse Jane from the Allergy clinic. We will have nine vaccinating stations, and City of Soldotna volunteers are assisting in the observation room (everyone needs to stay for a minimum of 15 minutes after their vaccination) helping people to schedule their follow-up appointment in three weeks. On Thursday, we had 197 people signed up for our central peninsula vaccine clinic. Some staff who had signed up were able to receive the vaccination early after 42 doses needed to put in arms by 10:20 in the morning earlier this week. In addition, I have heard nearly 100 staff have had earlier opportunities to be vaccinated.

With the new variants popping in, it will probably take a higher number of people to be vaccinated in order to achieve herd immunity. And, the longer the virus can spread freely, the more opportunity for mutations that turn into new variants. Vaccination, masks, physical distancing, hygiene, contact tracing. That is what is going to end the pandemic. I feel like our school district is significantly contributing to the effort so from the bottom of my little nursing heart, I thank everyone so much for their willingness and support.”

The Kenai Peninsula Borough School District is committed to make it as easy as possible for everyone who wants to receive the vaccine to get it. The KPBSD does not require the vaccine, and is not tracking who has received it, or who has not, unless someone replied to an email last fall indicating that they wanted to receive the vaccine when it became available. The clinics are designed to be offered during times that work well with the schedules for staff and students.

March 23 Update

Note: Pfizer vaccine is authorized only for individuals 16 years of age and older, and Moderna and Janssen vaccines are authorized only for individuals 18 years of age and older.

Who is eligible? Anyone living or working in Alaska is eligible.

Vaccine Information:

Information about COVID-19 vaccines approved by FDA Emergency Use Authorization:

• mRNA vaccines
  • Pfizer-Biontech -approved for 16 years and up
  • Moderna  – approved for 18 years and up
• Viral Vector vaccines
  • Janssen (Johnson & Johnson)  – approved for 18 years and up

Getting your second dose?

• If you already got your first dose at a mass vaccination event, there is no need to make another appointment. You reserved your appointment when you got your first dose.
• 2^nd dose clinics are by appointment only. No walk-ins.
• If you have questions about your second dose appointment, or need to cancel, call 235-0235.
• Friday, March 19^th is a second-dose clinic at Homer High School for those who got their first dose at Community Christian Church on Friday, February 26^th.

 Vaccines are not available at Homer Medical Center or South Peninsula Family Care Clinic at this time.

Check back here for regular updates.

See the map of vaccine locations statewide

On the arm where you got the shot

• Pain
• Swelling

Throughout the rest of your body

• Fever
• Chills
• Tiredness
• Headache

To reduce the pain and discomfort where you got the shot

• Apply a clean, cool, wet washcloth over the area.
• Use of exercise your arm.

To reduce the discomfort from fever

• Drink plenty of fluids.
• Dress lightly.

Strengths     

• VAERS collects national data from all U.S. states and territories.
• VAERS accepts reports from anyone.
• The VAERS form collects information about the vaccine, the person vaccinated, and the adverse event.
• Data are publicly available.
• VAERS can be used as an early warning system to identify rare adverse events.
• It is possible to follow-up with patients to obtain health records, when necessary.

Limitations   

• It is generally not possible to find out from VAERS data if a vaccine caused the adverse event.
• Reports submitted to VAERS often lack details and sometimes contain errors.
• Serious adverse events are more likely to be reported than mild side effects.
• Rate of reports may increase in response to media attention and increased public awareness.
• It is not possible to use VAERS data to calculate how often an adverse event occurs in a population.

Covid-19 Vaccines

March 16 Update

Please check back daily for updates!

Coming Soon!  350 appointments for Pfizer vaccines later this month (the only approved vaccine for 16-17 year olds).

Who is eligible? Anyone living or working in Alaska is eligible.

Note: Pfizer vaccine is authorized only for individuals 16 years of age and older, and Moderna and Janssen vaccines are authorized only for individuals 18 years of age and older.

Vaccine Information:

Information about COVID-19 vaccines approved by FDA Emergency Use Authorization:

• mRNA vaccines
  • Pfizer-Biontech -approved for 16 years and up
  • Moderna  – approved for 18 years and up
• Viral Vector vaccines
  • Janssen (Johnson & Johnson)  – approved for 18 years and up

Getting your second dose?

• If you already got your first dose at a mass vaccination event, there is no need to make another appointment. You reserved your appointment when you got your first dose.
• 2^nd dose clinics are by appointment only. No walk-ins.
• If you have questions about your second dose appointment, or need to cancel, call 235-0235.
• Friday, March 19^th is a second-dose clinic at Homer High School for those who got their first dose at Community Christian Church on Friday, February 26^th.

 Vaccines are not available at Homer Medical Center or South Peninsula Family Care Clinic at this time.

Check back here for regular updates.

See the map of vaccine locations statewide

Covid-19 Vaccines

March 9 Update

Appointments full? Click here to add your contact information to be on our waitlist to be notified for day-of cancellations.

Check here Monday, March 15 for 40+ appointments for Janssen (Johnson and Johnson) vaccine.

Who is eligible? Anyone living or working in Alaska is eligible.

Note: Pfizer vaccine is authorized only for individuals 16 years of age and older, and Moderna and Janssen vaccines are authorized only for individuals 18 years of age and older.

Vaccine Information:

Information about COVID-19 vaccines approved by FDA Emergency Use Authorization:

• mRNA vaccines
  • Pfizer-Biontech -approved for 16 years and up
  • Moderna  – approved for 18 years and up
• Viral Vector vaccines
  • Janssen (Johnson & Johnson)  – approved for 18 years and up

Getting your second dose?

• If you already got your first dose at a mass vaccination event, there is no need to make another appointment. You reserved your appointment when you got your first dose.
• 2^nd dose clinics are by appointment only. No walk-ins.
• If you have questions about your second dose appointment, or need to cancel, call 235-0235.
• Friday, March 12^th is a first and second-dose clinic at Homer High School, second dose for those who got their first dose on February 12^th or 13^th at Community Christian Church.
• Friday, March 19^th is a second-dose clinic at Homer High School for those who got their first dose at Community Christian Church on Friday, February 26^th.

 Vaccines are not available at Homer Medical Center or South Peninsula Family Care Clinic at this time.

Check back here for regular updates.

See the map of vaccine locations statewide

Spring break is here! If your family or student travels outside the state, the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District recommends travelers get a COVID-19 test within 72 hours of returning to Alaska, and practice social distancing until you receive the results. Free testing is also available at the airport upon arrival. Have fun – and stay safe!

Learn more about the State of Alaska’s guidance for travelers at www.AlaskaSafeTravels.com or at the KPBSD COVID-19 hub.

Covid-19 Vaccines

March 3 Update

We are expecting additional vaccine supplies soon. Check back regularly for updates as additional dates may be added.

Who is eligible?     Read the full March 3 press release on Phase 1c here.

NEWLY ELIGIBLE GROUP (Phase 1c) includes

• Anyone age 55-64 years, and
• Anyone 18 and older who is:
  1. An essential worker as defined by CISA, or
  2. Considered “high risk” or “might be high risk” by their provider or the CDC, or
  3. Living in a multigenerational household, or
  4. Living in an “unserved community”

Other eligible groups (Phase 1a and Phase 1b) include:

• People 65 years of age and above (seniors)
• Anyone assisting a senior (age 65+) in getting vaccinated
• People who provide daily support for a medically fragile person
• Healthcare workers, EMS, and Fire Service
• Pre K–Grade 12 education and childcare staff
• People living or working in congregate settings
• Pandemic response staff

Limitations may apply. Visit the State vaccine info page for details.

Vaccine Information:

Information about COVID-19 vaccines approved by FDA Emergency Use Authorization:

• mRNA vaccines
  • Pfizer-Biontech
  • Moderna
• Viral Vector vaccines
  • Janssen (Johnson & Johnson)

Getting your second dose?

• If you already got your first dose at a mass vaccination event, there is no need to make another appointment. You reserved your appointment when you got your first dose.
• 2^nd dose clinics are by appointment only. No walk-ins.
• If you have questions about your second dose appointment, or need to cancel, call 235-0235.
• Friday, March 5^th second-dose clinic at Homer High School is for those who got their first dose on February 5^th or 6^th at Community Christian Church
• Friday, March 12^th is a first and second-dose clinic at Homer High School, second dose for those who got their first dose on February 12^th or 13^th at Community Christian Church.
• Friday, March 19^th is a second-dose clinic at Homer High School for those who got their first dose at Community Christian Church on Friday, February 26^th.

 Vaccines are not available at Homer Medical Center or South Peninsula Family Care Clinic at this time.

Check back here for regular updates.

See the map of vaccine locations statewide

Follow the links below to see limitations that may apply. Alaskans currently eligible to receive the COVID vaccine include:

• People 65 years and above
• People 50 years and above with a high-risk medical condition
• People 50 years who are an essential worker and must work within 6 feet of others
• PreK–12 and child care education staff
• Most health care workers
• People living or working in congregate settings

Note: Vaccine managed by the Alaska Tribal Health System, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and the U.S. Department of Defense may have different eligibility criteria.

Alaska uses a phased approach to make the vaccine available. Vaccine supply is very limited at first, and it will gradually be available to more Alaskans over time.

Covid-19 Vaccines

March 2 Update

We are expecting additional vaccine supplies soon. Check back regularly for updates as additional dates may be added.

Who is eligible?

• Newly added:
  • People who stay home to provide healthcare for a medically fragile person. Eligible individuals provide daily support related to an individual’s activities of daily living (i.e., bathing, dressing, eating) and instrumental activities of daily living (i.e., shopping, laundry, light housework).
  • People who assist someone 65 years of age or older in getting a vaccination. Both the senior and the person providing assistance will need to schedule an appointment at the same location and time. The person assisting does not need to meet other eligibility requirements to receive the vaccine.
• Phase 1b, Tier 2 – This group includes:
  • People 50 years and above with a high-risk medical condition
  • People 50 years and above who must work within 6 feet of others as an essential worker*
  • Pre K–12 and child care education staff
  • People living or working in congregate settings
• Persons aged 65 years and older (Phase 1b)
• All of Phase 1a*

Vaccine Information:
Information about COVID-19 vaccines approved by FDA Emergency Use Authorization:

• mRNA vaccines
  • Pfizer-Biontech
  • Moderna
• Viral Vector vaccines
  • Janssen (Johnson & Johnson)

Getting your second dose?

• If you already got your first dose at a mass vaccination event, there is no need to make another appointment. You reserved your appointment when you got your first dose.
• 2^nd dose clinics are by appointment only. No walk-ins.
• If you have questions about your second dose appointment, or need to cancel, call 235-0235.
• Friday, March 5^th second-dose clinic at Homer High School is for those who got their first dose on February 5^th or 6^th at Community Christian Church
• Friday, March 12^th is a first and second-dose clinic at Homer High School, second dose for those who got their first dose on February 12^th or 13^th at Community Christian Church.
• Friday, March 19^th is a second-dose clinic at Homer High School for those who got their first dose at Community Christian Church on Friday, February 26^th.

 Vaccines are not available at Homer Medical Center or South Peninsula Family Care Clinic at this time.

Check back here for regular updates.

See the map of vaccine locations statewide

Covid-19 Vaccines

February 23 Update

The February 26 mass vaccination clinic is full.

Click here to add your contact information to be on the wait list for day-of cancellations for this event only.

Over 700 appointments for Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine will become available on Monday, March 1 at 12pm noon for the following dates and locations:

• 500+ appointments at a mass vaccination clinic on Friday, March 12 at Homer High School
• 200+ appointments at the SPH Covid Vaccine and Test Center on Bartlett Street March 9^th, 10^th,11^th, 16^th and 17^th.

Appointments can be made online here, or by calling the City Vaccine Call Line at 435-3188. Both will go live at 12pm Monday, March 1st.

Who is eligible?

• New Eligibility Group!
  Phase 1b, Tier 2 – This group includes:
  • People 50 years and above with a high-risk medical condition*
  • People 50 years and above who must work within 6 feet of others as an essential worker*
  • Pre K–12 and child care education staff*
  • People living or working in congregate settings*
  • Persons aged 65 years and older (Phase 1b)
  • All of Phase 1a*
    Please note: The State of Alaska DHSS has clarified “health care setting” for vaccine eligibility as follows:
    Workers in health care settings can include someone who stays home to care for an elderly family member. Eligible individuals provide daily support related to an individual’s activities of daily living (i.e., bathing, dressing, eating) as well as instrumental activities of daily living (i.e., shopping, laundry, light housework). These may be paid, unpaid, or contracted positions. This may also include teachers or other school staff that provide health care activities for students including tube feedings, suctioning, and other hands-on healthcare.
• If you already got your first dose at the Feb 5 / 6 event, you already have your 2^nd dose appointment for March 5. If you have questions about your appointment on March 5, click here or call 235-0235.
• Vaccines are not available at Homer Medical Center or South Peninsula Family Care Clinic at this time.

Check back here for regular updates.

See the map of vaccine locations statewide

By Rotary International

For the 13th consecutive year, The Rotary Foundation has received the highest rating — four stars — from Charity Navigator, an independent evaluator of charities in the U.S.

The Foundation earned the recognition for adhering to sector best practices and executing its mission in a financially efficient way, demonstrating both strong financial health and commitment to accountability and transparency. Only one percent of the organizations Charity Navigator evaluates have received 13 consecutive 4-star evaluations.

"Your achievement and 4-star rating will enhance your organization’s fundraising and public relations efforts,” says Michael Thatcher, president and chief executive officer of Charity Navigator. "This exceptional designation sets the Foundation apart from its peers and demonstrates to the public its trustworthiness."

The rating reflects Charity Navigator's assessment of how the Foundation uses donations, sustains its programs and services, and practices good governance and openness.

16-Dec-2020    

 LEARN MORE  

The Rotary Foundation transforms your gifts into service projects that change lives both close to home and around the world.

Since it was founded more than 100 years ago, the Foundation has spent more than $4 billion on life-changing, sustainable projects.

With your help, we can make lives better in your community and around the world.

Our mission

The mission of The Rotary Foundation of Rotary International is to enable Rotarians to advance world understanding, goodwill, and peace through the improvement of health, the support of education, and the alleviation of poverty.

What impact can one donation have?

• For as little as 60 cents, a child can be protected from polio.
• $50 can provide clean water to help fight waterborne illness.
• $500 can launch an antibullying campaign and create a safe environment for children.

Covid-19 Vaccines

February 17 Update–

Appointments available soon!

Check here Friday morning, Feb. 19 at 10am for a limited number of appointments for a small Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine clinic taking place on Friday, February 26^th.  For those not connected online, there is an informational recording at 435-3188, and that phone line will be answered starting at 10am Friday for assistance with appointments. A wait list of 100 names will be taken for this event once appointments fill.

A large-scale mass vaccination clinic will take place in early March. Check here on Monday, March 1^st at 12pm noon to make your appointment for that event.

Who is eligible?

• New Eligibility Group!
  Phase 1b, Tier 2 – This group includes:
  • People 50 years and above with a high-risk medical condition*
  • People 50 years and above working as a frontline essential worker*
  • Pre K–12 and child care education staff*
  • People living or working in congregate settings*
  • Persons aged 65 years and older (Phase 1b)
  • All of Phase 1a*
    Please note: The State of Alaska DHSS has clarified “health care setting” for vaccine eligibility as follows:
    Workers in health care settings can include someone who stays home to care for an elderly family member. Eligible individuals provide daily support related to an individual’s activities of daily living (i.e., bathing, dressing, eating) as well as instrumental activities of daily living (i.e., shopping, laundry, light housework). These may be paid, unpaid, or contracted positions. This may also include teachers or other school staff that provide health care activities for students including tube feedings, suctioning, and other hands-on healthcare.
• If you already got your first dose at the Feb 5 / 6 event, you already have your 2^nd dose appointment for March 5. If you have questions about your appointment on March 5, click here or call 235-0235.
• Vaccines are not available at Homer Medical Center or South Peninsula Family Care Clinic at this time.

Check back here for regular updates.

See the map of vaccine locations statewide

Alaskans currently eligible to receive the COVID vaccine include:

• People 65 years and above
• Most health care workers*

Starting February 11, additional people will be eligible to book an appointment:

• People 50 years and above with a high-risk medical condition*
• People 50 years and above working as a frontline essential worker*
• Pre K–12 and child care education staff
• People living or working in congregate settings*

*Limitations apply. See footnotes for details.

Vaccine managed by the Alaska Tribal Health System, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and the U.S. Department of Defense may have different eligibility criteria. Vaccine doses will be distributed throughout Alaska in a series of phases. Over time, everyone who wants to be vaccinated will be able to get vaccinated.

Who is eligible now?

Phase 1a Tiers 1-3 - OPEN

• Long term care facility staff and residents
• Hospital-based frontline health care workers and hospital personnel
• Frontline EMS and Fire Service personnel providing medical services
• Community Health Aides/Practitioners
• Health care workers providing COVID vaccinations
• Workers in health care settings who meet all of the following criteria:
  • Have direct human patient contact, or have direct contact with infectious materials from patients, AND
  • Provide essential services in a hospital, clinic, home, or community-based setting that cannot be offered remotely or performed via telework; AND
  • Provide essential health care service in a health care setting that cannot be postponed without serious negative impact to the patient's health

Phase 1b Tier 1 - OPEN

• People 65 years and above

Phase 1b Tier 2 – OPEN (as of Feb. 11, 2021)

• People 50 years and above who have any of the following high-risk medical conditions:
  • cancer
  • chronic kidney disease
  • chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)
  • Down Syndrome
  • heart conditions, such as heart failure, coronary artery disease, or cardiomyopathies
  • immunocompromised state (weakened immune system) from solid organ transplant
  • obesity or severe obesity (body mass index [BMI] greater than 30 kg/m²) (see calculator)
  • sickle cell disease
  • smoking
  • type 1 or type 2 diabetes mellitus
  • pregnancy
• Frontline essential workers 50 years and above who must work within 6 feet of others
• Education staff, limited to:
  • Childcare workers and support staff (e.g. custodial, food service, transportation);
  • Pre K–12 grade educators and support staff (e.g. custodial, food service, transportation);
  • Indigenous language and culture bearers
• People living or working in congregate settings not covered in Phase 1a, limited to:
  • Acute psychiatric facilities;
  • Correctional settings;
  • Group homes for individuals with disabilities or mental and behavioral health conditions;
  • Homeless and domestic violence shelters;
  • Substance misuse and treatment residential facilities; and
  • Transitional living homes
• Pandemic response staff who may come into contact with the SARS-CoV-2 virus during outbreak response activities.

Who is eligible soon?

Phase 1b Tier 3: Not yet open. Timeline to be determined.

• People 55 years and above
• People 40 years and above who have a high-risk medical condition
• People 16-49 who are frontline essential workers with a high-risk medical condition
• People 16 years and above who live in a multigenerational household with 3 or more generations, or “skipped” generations (e.g., a grandchild living with an elder).
• People 16 and above who live in communities where at least 45% homes have not been served either via pipe, septic tank and well, or covered haul system.

Phase 1c: Not yet open. Timeline to be determined.

• People 16 years and above who have a high-risk medical condition
• Frontline essential workers not included in previous phases, who are working in Alaska, as defined by CISA.

Who will be eligible later?

Learn more

We’re working to provide additional information, as it becomes available. Vaccine supply is very limited at first, and it will gradually be available to more Alaskans over time. Alaska uses a phased approach to make the vaccine available. The State of Alaska COVID-19 Vaccination Plan: Allocation Guidelines (PDF) explain the process.

Provide input

More information about the meeting, and how to provide comment, is available at the Alaska Vaccine Allocation Advisory Committee webpage.

Eligibility Footnotes

Updated Feb 10, 2021 replacing previous definitions

February 9 Update–
Openings Available! Make an Appointment

• Some appointments will be available for the vaccine clinic this Friday and Saturday, Feb. 12 and 13. Though designed mostly as an event to administer the second dose to those who already got vaccinated on January 15 and 16, we will also be offering first dose appointments to those in the eligible groups.
• As of February 8, eligible groups include:
  Persons aged 65 years and older (Phase 1b)
  All of Phase 1a*
•  
• Please note: the State of Alaska DHSS has clarified “health care setting” for vaccine eligibility as follows:
  Workers in health care settings can include someone who stays home to care for an elderly family member. Eligible individuals provide daily support related to an individual’s activities of daily living (i.e., bathing, dressing, eating) as well as instrumental activities of daily living (i.e., shopping, laundry, light housework). These may be paid, unpaid, or contracted positions. This may also include teachers or other school staff that provide health care activities for students including tube feedings, suctioning, and other hands-on healthcare.
• If you already got your first dose at the January 15/16 event, this event is NOT for you. You already have your 2^nd dose appointment for Feb 12/13. If you have questions about your appointment on Feb. 12 or 13, click here.
• Vaccines are not available at Homer Medical Center or South Peninsula Family Care Clinic at this time.

Check back here for regular updates.

See the map of vaccine locations statewide

2-1-21:

The Kenai Peninsula Borough School District will continue to require face coverings for staff, students, guests, and at athletic events, in all COVID-19 risk levels (low, medium, high, extreme) until further notice.

Working together we can and will keep schools open and safe.

Visit the KPBSD Covid-19 Hub to navigate to the data dashboard, Smart Start Plan, sports and activities, and additional links to state and KPBSD information about COVID-19 operations and mitigation plans.

Rotary clubs partner with the Maya Health Alliance to help 140 Guatemalan mothers and children avoid malnutrition

by Annemarie Mannion

Most new parents mark their baby’s progress in a series of milestones: first smile, first word, first steps. But pediatricians are focused on a milestone that might be less familiar: the first 1,000 days.

The phrase is shorthand for the period between conception and a child’s second birthday, a critical time frame when nutrition, or lack thereof, can have lifelong consequences. Research in child development has shown that when mothers and infants are poorly nourished during this stage, the adverse impact on children’s physical and mental development can have ripple effects throughout their lives. And much of that damage can never be undone, even with later interventions.

In 2010, with the support of the governments of the United States and Ireland, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and other organizations, a nonprofit called 1,000 Days was founded with the goal of making child nutrition and health a funding and policy priority around the world. Roger Thurow, a former reporter for the Wall Street Journal, also examined this concept in his 2016 book, The First Thousand Days. A senior fellow on global food and agriculture at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, Thurow says stunting is a complex problem that requires multipronged solutions. Even when food is plentiful, he says, poor sanitation or a lack of clean water can cause diarrhea or other illnesses that prevent a child from retaining nutrients.

In one mountainous, rural area of Guatemala, where staple crops (primarily corn) don’t provide sufficient nutrients, hunger and malnutrition are common. Around 1 million Guatemalan children under age five experience stunted development in their brains and bodies. Children are considered stunted when their height for their age is more than two standard deviations below the World Health Organization’s Child Growth Standards median, but the problem goes beyond simply being small for their age. “They are slower to walk, talk, and read,” says Anne Kraemer Diaz, the executive director of Wuqu’ Kawoq, also known as the Maya Health Alliance. “Stunting impacts their lifelong learning possibilities. It makes them prone to type 2 diabetes and to hypertension. They are looking at a lifetime of poverty and major impediments.”

In addition to persistent poverty, the effects include higher health care costs and weaker economies, according to Diaz. In 2010, the Maya Health Alliance started working specifically to help mothers and children avoid malnutrition.

The alliance sends health workers to the homes of more than 750 families — to interview them, measure and weigh their babies, and provide food, such as eggs and beans, deworming medication, education about healthy ways of living, and micronutrient packets.

“The impact of malnutrition on brain development is crucial in those first two years of a child’s life. That’s when massive brain development occurs,” says Joanne Rosener, a member of the Rotary Club of Rochester Risers in Minnesota, which is working with the Maya Health Alliance on an ambitious, long-term global grant project to improve nutrition for 140 Guatemalan families. More than a dozen Rotary clubs are involved.

Steps toward improving nutrition can be as simple as encouraging people to plant gardens. The clubs have provided funding for raised-bed gardens that supply families with a range of healthful foods that they otherwise do not have access to.

Diaz describes the region as a food desert: “Even though there is food all around them, it is all one crop.” That crop is corn, which is a staple of the traditional diet but which alone does not provide enough of the nutrients a child needs to thrive.

The Maya Health Alliance works with the families to choose what they will plant and to help them build the gardens and learn to grow the crops. Health workers also teach them about sustainable practices such as seed saving and intercropping, a practice that involves growing different crops in close proximity to each other to produce a greater yield.

The Rotary clubs have covered the cost of materials and supplies for the gardens, the purchase and maintenance of a truck and a laptop computer, and the services of an agronomist and community health workers.

The gardens, which are located at the families’ homes, are designed to flourish with as little labor and expense as possible. “They are raised gardens, so they need less water and they aren’t so prone to weeds,” says Rosener, whose club connected with the alliance via a dietitian in Rochester who had learned about the problem of stunting while visiting Guatemala.

Diaz reports that their efforts are having a positive impact. The percentage of households that were likely to be food insecure fell from 51 percent of the baseline over the past year to 30 percent at a six-month follow-up, then rose slightly to 31 percent at the 12-month follow-up. “At six months after the gardens were initiated, families had more diverse diets and more frequent meals,” she says.

One of the participants in the program is Maria (not her real name), a mother of three young children, including an infant. She and her husband, a bricklayer, live with 14 members of their extended family. While Chuti Estancia, the small village in southern Guatemala where Maria lives, has many farmers, Diaz says most of the food grown there is for export, and farmers aren’t skilled in growing a variety of produce.

Speaking through an interpreter, Maria says the family’s new garden has helped her children in many ways. “They develop much better in height and weight,” she says. “They get sick less now, and I believe that’s because they are consuming more vegetables and healthier foods.”

The program also has helped the family save money on food. “We learn to produce and to harvest, and we consume everything,” Maria says. “We save money by not buying vegetables, and we are able to eat organically, as we do not use any chemicals.”

Rosener says the Rotary clubs involved are committed to supporting the Maya Health Alliance for the long haul, and she is pleased that the gardens have produced positive results. “We know the kids aren’t slipping,” she says. “We know they’re making progress. But reversing the effects of malnutrition doesn’t happen overnight.”

The problem of stunting is not limited to Guatemala. According to the Global Nutrition Report released in 2018, the countries with the most children who are stunted are India with 46.6 million, Nigeria with 13.9 million, and Pakistan with 10.7 million.

Roger Thurow applauds the Rotarians’ approach to addressing the problem of stunting in Guatemala. Gardens for the residents will help now and will continue to help into the future. By looking at long-term, sustainable solutions, he says, Rotarians will be “supporting a community, not just giving handouts.”

• This story originally appeared in the November 2020 issue of Rotary magazine.

The people who fill the truly essential roles in society are often in short supply

By Joe Queenan          Illustrations by Sébastien Thibault

From time to time, societies run low on the things — and the people — they really need. We wake up one day and realize that there are too few doctors. Or far, far, far too few nurses. Or it suddenly dawns on us that there aren’t enough teachers, engineers, or plumbers to go around. There are certainly never enough guys who work well with sheetrock.

Other professionals we have in spades. There are always more than enough landscapers, baristas, actors, masseurs, personal trainers, hairdressers, IT guys, and chefs. Nor are we ever in any real danger of running out of hedge fund managers, ballerinas, real estate agents, claims adjusters, standup comics, bartenders, aspiring singer-songwriters, or car salesmen. But the people who fill the truly essential roles in society are often in short supply.

Something like this may already be happening with Good Samaritans. From time to time, societies run desperately low on the kinds of devoted, implacable altruists who are always ready to pitch in and make the world a better place.

Institutional altruism is rarely a problem. Plenty of churches, foundations, and government agencies are working night and day to help better society. These people do good for a living. But institutional philanthropy alone can’t handle a problem as large as the one created by the current pandemic. Societies always and everywhere rely on large numbers of those people sometimes derisively referred to as “do-gooders” to keep things running smoothly. And right now there aren’t enough do-gooders to go around. It doesn’t help that a lot of do-gooders are stuck indoors because of the pandemic.

The vexing problem of Good Samaritan Shortfall was driven home to me last February while I was visiting Washington, D.C. Strolling down M Street, I was approached by a young man in a red vest who was raising money for a worthy cause. I told him that I already contributed to the organization he represented, thanks to my wife, who regularly, reflexively, almost automatically sends checks to a large number of indisputably saintly enterprises. In other words, to use a reliable old phrase, I gave at the office. Well, she did.

The young man smiled amiably. He was not pushy. He was not judgmental. He did not try to embarrass me with that sneering “Have a nice day” that virtuous para-professionals so often employ when people start to drift away without opening their wallets. He thanked me for my generosity, or, to be perfectly accurate, for my wife’s generosity. He said that regular contributions by people like us were the very lifeblood of the organization. But in this case, he added, he was out raising money for a specific initiative.

I now tried to explain that asking me to give more to a cause I already supported seemed like philanthropic double dipping. It was like asking someone who was already writing checks to save endangered hippos to write a second check to save endangered rhinos. It was like asking someone who was already demonstrably a “good” person (or who at least had some sort of conjugal affiliation with one) to become an even better person. My question — a pretty obvious one, I thought — was: Why couldn’t somebody else carry the ball for a change?

The young man patiently listened, then waved away my protests. “We ask people who’ve already given to give again because we know that those people are generous,” he said. “Doesn’t it make more sense to target people who already think like us than to go after strangers?”

The deceptively cunning logic of his argument floored me. My feeling had always been that if we — as a family — had already given to the Fresh Air Fund and the Sierra Club, then we didn’t have to give to the Red Cross or the Salvation Army. In my mind, I had conflated all the organizations that were trying to make the world a better place into one monolith of merit. My wife, Francesca, didn’t look at things that way. In her view, just because you had already given to this didn’t mean you couldn’t give to that. The way she sees it, there is no ceiling for good works.

I disagreed. I even wisecracked that we should adopt a simple ethical cap-and-trade policy, stipulating that if we helped clean up the rivers, we didn’t have to help clean up the lakes. At least not both of us. She was having none of it. Who ever said that you were allowed to take a vacation from virtue? Bad people didn’t take sabbaticals from wrongdoing, so why should good people take a break from doing good? If you were altruistic, you were required to be uninterruptedly altruistic. In the parlance of her native England, if you were in for a penny, you were in for a pound.

There isn’t enough altruism to go around

This got me to thinking about the Good Samaritans I knew personally. At some point I realized that the high-profile do-gooders in my community almost never limited their good-doing to a single activity. If you saw them volunteering at the library book sale on Saturday, you would probably also see them at the Girl Scout bake sale on Sunday. If they were out brandishing petitions to save a historic building, you would probably also see them fighting to save a historic mural. At first I thought that people like this practiced virtue on such a large scale mainly because it made them feel better about themselves — which it indisputably does. But over the years I have come to realize that these neighbors do not necessarily engage in so many virtuous activities merely because they are good, caring people. It’s because they know that there aren’t enough good, caring people to go around.

Baseball teams rely on a pipeline of minor league talent that eventually gets called up to the majors. I think that those who perform altruistic activities at the major league level could benefit from this kind of system. I’ve noticed that my wife, who runs a senior citizens center on a pro bono basis, ceaselessly cultivates civic-minded individuals who are roughly a generation younger than us. It’s not enough to be good. It really helps to also be young.

All of which suggests a rebuttal to the seemingly impregnable argument made by the young man in the red vest that I encountered on the streets of Washington. If you want to make the world a better place, you cannot keep raising money from the same people over and over, as he suggested, no matter how generous they are. Society cannot depend exclusively upon the pathologically altruistic or the congenitally compassionate to keep things going. There simply aren’t enough of them. Virtuous people need help. Virtuous people need to recruit new talent. All the time. This, in fact, is why Rotary clubs exist.

Good Samaritan versus the Intermittently Good Samaritan

At this point, it’s worth discussing the difference between the Good Samaritan and the Merely Adequate Samaritan. Like most people, I am not an inherently good person; goodness is learned behavior. Left to my own devices, I might eventually have morphed into a halfway decent human being. But I don’t think I would ever have gotten much further than that. Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would ever flower into a paragon of virtue. The closest I could come to that was being married to a paragon of virtue. This is the opposite of guilt by association. It is guiltlessness by association.

When we first married, my wife and I developed a division-of-labor approach to civic-mindedness. She would handle all the volunteer work involving the schools, the community, the senior citizens, the underprivileged, the ozone layer, and the manatees, and I would buy the opera tickets. While she wrote checks to the Red Cross, Children’s Aid, Greenpeace, and Doctors Without Borders, I would buy tickets to the New York Philharmonic or the Tokyo String Quartet. I also purchased memberships to all the local museums. Thus, the good works practiced in our household were split right down the middle. She devoted herself to keeping society afloat; I devoted myself to keeping civilization afloat. Her job was a lot more time-consuming.

Since the coronavirus epidemic hit, as I have watched growing numbers of people who have never done anything civic-minded in their lives pitching in and helping, I have thought more and more about the essence of philanthropy. When all the good works are done by just a few people, which is almost always the case in small towns like the one where I live, it hurts the community, because people who do not regularly do good works either forget how to do them or never learn how in the first place. There’s an art to cleaning up polluted lakes or litter-strewn playgrounds. There’s an art to sitting patiently with people and helping them learn English as a second language. For that matter, there’s an art to going out into the street and asking complete strangers to fork over their money.

This is where the Good Samaritan and the Intermittently Good Samaritan part company. For a few years, my college-age son would help us deliver turkeys and groceries to needy members of our community at Christmastime. This was immensely satisfying work, because he could see how his efforts were brightening people’s lives, however fleetingly. Occasionally, other college students or retirees would offer to help. These individuals were fiercely well-meaning.

But when the chips are down and it’s time to drop off the Christmas baskets, well-meaningness isn’t enough. It is often said that in the world of altruism, it’s the thought that counts. Incorrect. If you’re going to do the right thing, you have to do it the right way. This is often impossible, because those who are only periodically virtuous are usually clueless. They give chickens to people who asked for turkeys and turkeys to people who asked for hams. They put too many Oreos in one bag and none in the other. At the end of those food runs, we invariably had to make a second trip to the supermarket because we always came up a couple of turkeys short. This was no way to run a railroad, much less a charity.

This gets to the crux of the matter: Good Samaritans are basically amateurs — but they shouldn’t be rank amateurs. Those who are going to get serious about altruism need to develop skills, to know where their talents are useful and where they are not. Virtue, like mastering the hammered dulcimer, requires practice. This is one of the few good things about the pandemic: It has given an awful lot of people who have never lifted a finger to help their fellow man a golden opportunity to learn the ropes, to go from bumbling amateurs to effective doers of good. People in my town who had never been especially altruistic now give big tips to those who work in the service industry, or they drop off food for those who cannot leave their homes, or they help clean up the garbage strewn along the riverfront. I never knew they had it in them.

In search of the next generation of do-gooders

But what of those who stubbornly refuse to lend a hand? I personally am not in favor of coercing people into doing good works, the way some progressive companies strong-arm their employees into doing community service in their free time. But I am not opposed to embarrassing people into doing good works. When I was growing up on the mean streets of Philadelphia — and yes, those streets were mean, and remain mean to this day — my parents were devout Catholics. They were also poor. The wolf was not always at the door, but it was usually somewhere in the vicinity. Yet no matter how bad things got, my parents always put something in the church collection basket on Sunday morning. They did not tithe, but they tried.

They did so by using envelopes sent by the church listing their name, address, and the amount donated each Sunday. Every month the church would publish a list of parishioner contributions. It was embarrassing when your name appeared next to a paltry $5. But it was better than not appearing at all.

I think society needs to try something like this. For years, I have watched the same do-gooders get older and older, waiting for the cavalry to arrive. And as they wait, the same people work at the polling stations, the same people visit the sick, and the same people staff the PTA. The simple as that. That’s why we might need public bulletin boards listing all the good works done only relief column these people are ever going to see is if every one of us voluntarily joins the cavalry. It’s as by local volunteers, with vast, blank spaces next to the names of those who have done nothing. Confrontational? Yes. Judgmental? Yes. But as the old saying goes: If you can’t beat ’em, browbeat ’em.

My daughter once dated a very smart young man whose specialty was economics. An implacable defender of the “rational actor” theory, he insisted that every human activity had some economic underpinning, that people who engaged in altruistic activities were secretly deriving some economic reward from doing so. This theory never made sense to me.

But now it does. Well, sort of. Helping your fellow man makes you feel better about yourself. It really does. And this helps cut down on expenses. In a society where all those Pilates classes, all those continuing education courses, all those self-help books and videos and boot camps are basically expensive, time-consuming, invariably unsuccessful ways to make you feel better about yourself, altruism is the obvious solution to your problem. No matter what the economists say, you can’t put a price on happiness. There aren’t any numbers that go that high.

• This story originally appeared in the December 2020 issue of Rotary magazine.

• Joe Queenan is a frequent contributor to Rotary magazine. Since March, he has written four one-act plays (all of which will be performed on Zoom), a screenplay, and a rock opera.

News Release                                                                                                                                                                
All KPBSD 7-12 grade students can attend school onsite five days a week beginning Monday, February 1, 2021

Soldotna, January 28, 2021—All 42 KPBSD schools will be open every day to the onsite at-school learning option for all grades, including 7-12 grade students, beginning Monday, February 1, 2021. The 100% Remote Learning choice is still available if a family chooses this option.

All PreK-12 grade students who want to attend school onsite every day are now able to do so! Working together, we can keep schools open when operating in Red, or High COVID-19 risk. So far, safety mitigation plans are working, so keep up the good effort during time at school, riding the bus, participating in sports, and with outside activities!

Enhanced Safety plans                                  

• Shift in 2021: Instead of broad regional decisions to extinguish the onsite learning option, the KPBSD district level team will work with individual schools when a positive COVID-19 case occurs in a school requiring student or staff quarantine, or results in staffing shortages. Thus, you may experience only a classroom or specific school shift to the 100% Remote Learning option
• To keep onsite learning happening and schools open, it is key that everyone follow the plans for health and safety. Thank you for sticking to the KPBSD Symptom Free School protocol
• Bus transportation is provided on a normal schedule, everyone must wear a face covering, and seating plans will be put in place
• Staff and all ages of students wear a mask at all times
• Mitigation plans at school sites must be faithfully and fully implemented
• Pods or cohorts will be in consistent groups
• 6’ physical distancing needs to occur whenever possible. Physical distance will keep staff and students healthy in school, minimize in-school exposure or transmission, and reduce the number of people who need to quarantine when a positive COVID-19 case occurs

Links                

• KPBSD COVID-19 Hub or covid19.kpbsd.org
• KPBSD COVID-19 risk level dashboard
• Helpful flyer: What to Do if You’ve Been Exposed to COVID-19: put your quarantine plan into action

All Seward area 7-12 grade students can return to onsite-at-school learning on January 25, 2021

Soldotna, January 22, 2021—Good news: the community spread of COVID-19 is continuing to flatten on the Kenai Peninsula, and as more students return to onsite at school learning, if everyone follows the school mitigation plans, schools will stay open for the rest of the school year. Grades 7-12 have been attending on split schedules due to COVID-19 risk levels, and very soon all KPBSD students will have the option to attend school onsite five days a week. If you have questions or issues to solve, kindly call your school and talk to your principal, teacher, or school secretary.

Monday, January 25, 2021, Moose Pass and Seward schools will open for all 7-12th grade students to attend in-person, at school, every day

Monday, February 1, 2021, is the earliest possible date for:
Central Peninsula (Kasilof, Kenai, Nikiski, Soldotna, and Sterling area schools)
Southern Peninsula (Homer area, Nikolaevsk, and Ninilchik schools)

On or before January 28, 2021, KPBSD will provide an update with an official announcement about when central and southern peninsula schools will open onsite learning for all grades.

Enhanced Safety plans

• Shift in 2021: Instead of broad regional decisions to extinguish the onsite learning option, the KPBSD district level team will work with individual schools when a positive COVID-19 case occurs in a school requiring student or staff quarantine, or results in staffing shortages. Thus, you may experience only a classroom or specific school shift to the 100% Remote Learning option
• To keep onsite learning happening and schools open, it is key that everyone follow the plans for health and safety. Thank you for sticking to the KPBSD Symptom Free School protocol
• Bus transportation is provided on a normal schedule, everyone must wear a face covering, and seating plans will be put in place
• Staff and all ages of students wear a mask at all times
• Mitigation plans at school sites must be faithfully and fully implemented
• Pods or cohorts will be in consistent groups
• 6’ physical distancing needs to occur whenever possible. Physical distance will keep staff and students healthy in school, minimize in-school exposure or transmission, and reduce the number of people who need to quarantine when a positive COVID-19 case occurs

How will I know when grades 7-12 will be open every day to onsite learning at my school?

Parents, students, and families will receive a message from the district through School Messenger, and schools will also contact their families when this change takes effect. An announcement will be posted on KPBSD.org, the KPBSD mobile app, and on social media. The KPBSD team continues to monitor COVID-19 spread, health care capacity, and ability to staff and operate schools safely. Thank you for your good effort to open schools safely, and keep schools open! Monitor your school risk level on the COVID-19 dashboard.

Links

• KPBSD COVID-19 Hub or covid19.kpbsd.org
• KPBSD COVID-19 risk level dashboard
• Helpful flyer: What to Do if You’ve Been Exposed to COVID-19: put your quarantine plan into action

Covid-19 Vaccines

January 27 Update–

• SPH expects 500 Moderna Covid-19 vaccines the first week of February.
• A mass vaccination clinic will be held Friday and Saturday, Feb 5 and 6 at the Community Christian Church, under direction of Homer Unified Command.
• This event is by appointment only – no walk-ins
• Appointments can be made online at www.sphosp.org starting Tuesday, Feb. 2 at 10am
• If a person does not have access to internet or needs assistance in booking, call the City of Homer vaccine help line at 435-3188. It will open at 10am Tuesday Feb 2.
• If a person was on the wait list for the January 15 and 16 clinic, they still need to make an appointment for this clinic. No names were forwarded to the February event.
• There are no wait lists at this time.
• Vaccines are not available at Homer Medical Center or South Peninsula Family Care Clinic at this time.
• We are obligated to offer the vaccines to anyone in the eligible groups which includes:
  Persons aged 65 years and older (Phase 1b)
  All of Phase 1a

Check back here for regular updates.

See the map of vaccine locations statewide

Looking for information on your second dose appointment on February 12 and 13?

Hunger and malnutrition unleashed by COVID-19 could carry the impact of the pandemic far into the future

by Roger Thurow                      Illustrations by Phil Wrigglesworth

Late 2019, just before the coronavirus began its relentless march around the world, I joined a group of fourth graders in their crowded classroom in an Ethiopian village. Their teacher posed an adventurous question to the students: What would you like to be one day?

“I would like to be a nurse and help people.”

“A doctor!”

“A teacher or a businessman.”

They were answers you might hear in any fourth grade classroom, anywhere in the world. But this was no ordinary group of elementary school pupils, so I asked a follow-up question: How old are you?

The answers: 18, 18, and 21.

At the time of my visit, I saw this classroom — with half of its students aged 18 and older — as an indictment of humanity’s past neglect of nutrition and agricultural development, which had allowed hunger to persist in our world. Many of these students were young children in 2003 when, in the first great hunger crisis of the 21st century, 14 million Ethiopians, many of them children, faced starvation. For the children who survived, this severe early malnutrition often resulted in stunted bodies and brains.

In this classroom, I saw how stunting can become a life sentence of underachievement. It is highly unlikely that any of the students I met — teenagers and young adults just now learning simple math and struggling to read — will fulfill their ambitions of professional careers and their desires to help others. Lost potential is the consequence of a stunted generation: What might these young people have accomplished for themselves, their families, their community, their country — for all of us — had they not been malnourished as children?

Several weeks after my visit, the coronavirus pandemic shifted my perspective of what I had seen in this classroom. These students aren’t simply showing us the effects of past malnutrition. They are giving us a glimpse into our post-pandemic future, a view of how the hunger and malnutrition unleashed by COVID-19 could carry the impact of the pandemic far into the future.

The pandemic has changed how we see hunger today, both around the world and in the United States. The global health crisis became an economic calamity followed by a nutrition catastrophe. As businesses shut down, job losses mounted, supply chains shattered, and schools that had provided vital meal programs closed, access to food and nutrition was radically interrupted, and in many cases severely limited, for billions of people. The World Food Programme — the United Nations agency in charge of emergency food distribution as well as school meal programs in numerous countries — warned that an additional 270 million people were facing grave hunger, with children most at risk. Nutritionists predicted that stunting, which already affects nearly one of every four children in the world, would surely rise. Researchers, writing in the medical journal The Lancet, estimated that more than 6 million children would suffer wasting (severe underweight) and that as many as 10,000 children could die from malnutrition every month in the coming year.

The pandemic has made hunger and malnutrition more immediate, more urgent, more threatening. And that is not only happening in lower- and middle-income countries. It has also had a profound impact in one of the richest, most bountiful countries in the world, exposing a national oxymoron: hungry Americans.

Hunger has become more personal for many Americans than at any time since the Great Depression. As the pandemic paralyzed the economy and jobs and incomes vanished, we have seen massive demand at food banks and pop-up relief pantries — perhaps we have even been there ourselves or recognized our relatives, friends, neighbors, or co-workers in those crowds. We have seen highways come to a standstill with epic traffic jams at drive-through bread lines. We’ve seen the mad scramble to replace the subsidized breakfast and lunch programs once provided by now-closed schools. We’ve experienced the frantic dash to grab whatever food remains on the shelves of the grocery stores. At the same time, we’ve seen farmers plowing under crops and dumping milk and euthanizing livestock because their regular customers — the restaurants, schools, and businesses — have stopped buying.

We’ve seen all this and we are shocked. But we shouldn’t be.

Americans hold tight to the belief that ours is a land of everlasting bounty, with amber waves of grain stretching majestically across the fruited plain, from sea to shining sea. We sing of how “God shed his grace on thee” — on America. We believe ourselves to be the world’s breadbasket, with the richest soils, the best farmers, the most advanced technologies that allow us to feed the planet’s hungry, wherever they may be. We could imagine that a global health crisis would turn into a hunger crisis “over there” somewhere, in Africa or India perhaps. But in America? No way.

It is the lie we tell ourselves, blinding us to the 40 million fellow citizens who, even before the pandemic, struggled to come up with their next meal. But now we see. The pandemic has forced us to look. The truth is that while we may indeed feed the world, we don’t feed all our own citizens. It’s not that we can’t. It’s that we won’t. We allow hunger to abide.

The truth is that there have always been lines at food pantries, where the shelves are always in desperate need of replenishing; that the ceaseless wave across the fruited plain is one of schoolchildren heading to cafeterias for free meals; that the one thing that does stretch from sea to shining sea is a network of 60,000-plus food pantries and soup kitchens that outnumber McDonald’s restaurants by more than 4-to-1.

We see the Golden Arches everywhere, but do we see the food pantries? They are there, tucked away in community halls and church basements; many of them are served and supported by Rotarians. They are places of relief and salvation. But all too often they are also places of stigma and shame. Who are the people who need them, and what did they do wrong? To look closely would mean examining painful truths and asking, What did we do wrong?

How does this obscene oxymoron persist? How do we, in a wealthy country, a democracy that has been the envy of the world, tolerate it? Economists have advanced a theory that there can be no famine in a democracy; surely voters would oust any sitting government amid mass starvation. But America proves that you can have hunger — if not outright starvation — in a democracy. Before the pandemic, even with 40 million food-insecure citizens, hunger rarely rated a mention in any political campaign.

U.S. Representative Jim McGovern of Massachusetts, who is co-chair of the House Hunger Caucus, tells anyone who will listen that hunger is a political condition. But its consequences aren’t acute enough to prod lawmakers to take any kind of lasting, unified action to end it. There is rhetoric aplenty, and there are grand intentions. Most every politician can manage to summon a flash of righteous indignation against hunger — who could be for hunger? — but when it comes to spending political capital and actual money to eliminate hunger, there is eternal stinginess. When the purse strings do open, it is usually with a grudging motion and even a sneer: “Are they really hungry in this country?”

Over the years, U.S. legislators have enacted programs to provide nutritional aid: the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, commonly known as food stamps; the Women, Infants, and Children program, or WIC; school breakfast and lunch programs. But these initiatives are perpetually underfunded, underpromoted, and under attack. As the pandemic hit, 18 million American households relied on SNAP benefits (which, although meant to last a month, rarely stretch to two weeks). Government analysts acknowledge that millions more people are probably qualified to receive the benefits but are intimidated by the process of applying, or recoil with a sense of shame at the notion of receiving aid, or simply don’t know it’s available. And so hunger abides.

Rhetoric, like charity, is fleeting. We generously give our cans of vegetables, jars of peanut butter, boxes of pasta, and cash donations during food drives, particularly in times of natural disasters. But without decisive action to match those donations, without commitment to eliminate the problems that cause the need, the structures of inequality remain in place and, away from the spotlight cast by the emergency, the suffering continues. We have become comfortable with hunger in our midst, and, in a mockery of our displays of sympathy, Americans are the most profligate food wasters in the world: We throw away one-third of all food prepared for consumption.

We don’t even call it hunger. We use a euphemism: “food insecurity,” defined as a lack of consistent access to enough food and proper nutrients for an active, healthy life. According to the government’s measurements, about 11 percent of U.S. households were food insecure before the COVID-19 outbreak; by late April — within one month of the start of lockdowns and stay-at-home orders — the rate had doubled to 22.7 percent. Once the pandemic’s impact began spreading across the country, more than 17 percent of households with children under age 12 reported that their children weren’t getting enough food (compared with about 3 percent of families reporting such hardship in 2018). Feeding America, a network of 200 food banks, calculates that it is now serving 50 million people, up from 40 million pre-pandemic. That’s 10 million more people who likely never imagined they would be reaching out for benefits in a food line. What did they do wrong? A global health crisis closed their office, their factory, their school.

Will they — will we, as a nation — look at our hunger problem differently now? Will we summon the sense of shared purpose needed to conquer COVID-19, the passion required to confront racism, the energy demanded to eliminate hunger in our most bountiful land?

Is this a moment of reckoning for our American oxymoron, now that “over there” is happening here?

I had seen, once before, the tragic, perplexing phenomenon of food surpluses destroyed or spoiled because of broken supply chains and disrupted markets, even as demand for food assistance skyrocketed — in Ethiopia 2003.

I was a foreign correspondent with the Wall Street Journal then, covering development and humanitarian stories. A catastrophic progression of agricultural miscalculations, international water disputes, local market breakdowns, and drought had triggered widespread famine after two years of bumper harvests. Up on the Boricha plateau, south of the capital of Addis Ababa, I parted the flaps of an emergency feeding tent and stepped inside to a scene of utter horror.

Dozens of children were starving to death. Speechless, I moved through the tent until I came to Tesfaye Ketema, who was sitting on the floor, holding his son Hagirso. Tesfaye, all skin and bones himself, told me he had carried his boy for hours to the tent, hoping to save his life. Just a year before, he had carried his surplus crops to this very field, which was then a bustling market. When I met them, Hagirso was five years old and weighed 27 pounds. The doctors were telling Tesfaye they didn’t know if his son would survive, so severe was the malnutrition shock.

“A teacher or a businessman”: That was the ambition voiced in December by Hagirso, now 21 years old, sitting in the front row of that crowded fourth grade classroom. He had survived. But he clearly hadn’t thrived over the past 16 years: He was physically and cognitively stunted, still struggling to learn to do simple math, to read, and to write.

At home, on a small plot of land, Hagirso helps his father and his mother, Fikre, raise their crops of maize, potatoes, and kale, and tend to the family’s cow and calf. He pitches in on community tree-planting and rain-harvesting efforts. And he is a role model for his younger siblings, who scamper after him when he walks to school. The youngest, a four-year-old brother, is named Enough — a plea to God, Tesfaye explained, that he be their last child and their last worry about malnutrition and stunting.

Enough. Will we make it our plea as well, as we look ahead into our post-pandemic future? Will we decide that we have had enough, that our new normal, however it develops, will be one without hunger?

• This story originally appeared in the November 2020 issue of Rotary magazine.

• Roger Thurow is a senior fellow at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. He has been writing about hunger and malnutrition for two decades, first as a foreign correspondent with the Wall Street Journal and now as author of three books. Parts of this story are adapted from his Chicago Council work, including an interactive feature on Hagirso and his fourth grade class

Follow these steps to organize a food drive on your own, or with a local food bank

by Maureen Vaught

Master gardener Alex Portelli was having lunch at an elementary school in Marion, North Carolina, where he volunteers, when two students, brothers, sat next to him in the cafeteria. “One brother pulled out his lunch and started eating,” recalls Portelli, president of the Rotary Club of Marion. “I asked the other brother where his lunch was, and he said, ‘It’s not my turn to eat today.’ I thought, ‘Oh, no. Not during my lifetime.’ That’s the type of personal story that gets us involved.” Portelli is now the chair of his county’s local food advisory council, and he’s active in the Rotary Zones 33-34 Hunger Challenge.

Rotary members in many places hold collection drives to help people, particularly families with children, get the food they need. As the coronavirus pandemic continues to affect jobs and school food programs, that need is growing. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the COVID-19 pandemic could add as many as 132 million people to the total number of undernourished in the world this year.

Want to organize a food drive in your community? Here are some ideas and tips to help ensure success.

Step 1

Choose a group to support

If you’re not sure whom to help, contact your local food bank or pantry for suggestions. “In some cases, towns are too small to have a local food bank, but Rotary can connect them with a larger food bank,” says Billi Black, a Zone 33 assistant regional public image coordinator. Then work with the group to address its needs.

Step 2

Make a logistics plan

Form a committee to determine when, where, and how you’ll hold your drive. Get your members’ input and tap into their connections and expertise.

Step 3

Set a goal

And make it measurable: pounds of food collected, number of meals supplied, or dollar amount raised. Look for matching opportunities from other organizations that could double or triple your impact.

Step 4

Promote your event

The members of the Rotary Club of Prescott-Frontier, Arizona, considered their May food drive a success when they collected an estimated 3,000 pounds of food. But they stepped up their marketing when they held another drive in June. After the club contacted local media outlets and lined up news articles, social media posts, and radio interviews, it collected 38,000 pounds of food. “It was unbelievably successful,” says member Mike Payson.

Step 5

Track your success

Consider naming a “food champion” in your club or district whose responsibility is to help set goals and to promote and track their progress, and to make sure members record their volunteer hours and contributions in Rotary Club Central.

Step 6

Thank your donors

Even if you can’t thank each contributor individually, show your gratitude by posting photos from your event on your website and on social media.

Work with a local food bank

Staffers at your local food bank have the experience and expertise to ensure that your food drive is a success. They know who needs what in your community and have conducted many food drives, so they know what works and what doesn’t. They can also:

• Help with logistics, including publicity, choosing a location, and scheduling. “We just show up with the money, food, and manpower,” says Johnny Moore, an assistant regional public image coordinator for Zone 33.
• Make better use of your funds. Because of their buying power, your dollar goes further.
• Coordinate the distribution of food where it’s needed most.

Virtual food drives

If you’re looking for alternatives to an in-person food drive during a pandemic, organize a virtual one instead. Set up a page on your club’s or local food bank’s website to collect financial donations, track your group’s progress, and share updates with your supporters.

• This story originally appeared in the December 2020 issue of Rotary magazine.

How soon will 7-12 grade students return to onsite at-school learning every day?

Covid-19 Vaccines

January 18 Update – Thank you to the team of more than 100 community members who worked to host the first Covid-19 vaccine clinic on the Southern Kenai Peninsula this past weekend. Sponsored by South Peninsula Hospital, City of Homer and AK Public Health, we administered 715 doses at the two day event. Special thanks to local EMS and Fire Departments, City Parks & Rec and Public Works staff, hospital and clinic staff, Rotary and School District staff and volunteers, generous donations and numerous contributions for making this event happen.

Information for those receiving their second dose of Moderna Covid-19 vaccine on February 12 and 13. CLICK HERE

Looking for a vaccine?  If you did not get a vaccine in this round, please visit this page regularly for updates on the next shipment. We have no idea when to expect it for certain, but are anticipating an early February rollout.  For those not connected online, there is an informational recording at 435-3188 that will be updated as more information becomes available.

Vaccines are not available at Homer Medical Center or South Peninsula Family Care Clinic at this time.

Who is currently eligible for vaccines in Alaska?

• Persons aged 65 year and older (Phase 1b, Tier 1)
• Health Care Workers (Phase 1a, Tiers 1,2,3)

See the map of vaccine locations statewide

For patients who lack options, a virtual visit can mean the difference between going with or without care

by Vanessa Glavinskas

“Right now, I can see all my patients through my mobile phone,” says Prakash Paudyal, a pulmonologist and member of the Rotary Club of Jawalakhel, Nepal. Paudyal uses a Kubi device to turn a tablet into a “mini-robot” for remote monitoring of his COVID-19 patients who are in isolation at Nepal National Hospital. Paudyal learned about the Kubi and other telehealth practices during a vocational training team trip to the San Francisco area last year. “I do one round with all my [protective] gear on, and then I see all my patients through this mini-robot,” he says, thankful that the Kubi helps protect him from exposure to the virus.

The use of telehealth has surged worldwide during the COVID-19 pandemic. In the United States, a study by McKinsey found that 46 percent of consumers are now using telehealth, up from 11 percent in 2019. Broadly defined, telehealth includes everything from virtual visits with a doctor to remote monitoring of a patient’s vitals to mobile health technologies.

The rapid increase in examining and treating patients remotely because of stay-at-home orders has not only helped in the fight against the coronavirus; it has also prompted a conversation about what the future will look like. What are the benefits of telehealth, and what controls for safety and privacy should be in place? One clear benefit is making health care more accessible to more people. For patients who lack transportation options or who live in remote areas, a virtual visit can mean the difference between being able to consult a doctor and going without care.

Telemedicine, typically defined as a virtual exam with a physician, requires access to the internet, which about 40 percent of the global population still lacks. But with the proliferation of smartphones, that’s becoming less of a barrier. Barbara Kiernan, a member of the Rotary Club of Catalina (Tucson), Arizona, has been working on a global grant project to bridge the distance between doctors and underserved patients in Sonora, Mexico, by supplying the equipment and technology needed for telemedicine, including solar power and internet access. They found that once community health care providers received the equipment and training, they were able to work with doctors located in bigger villages, allowing them to treat patients remotely. “Before, [rural villagers] really only got medical care during a crisis,” Kiernan says. With telemedicine available, “it’s shifted to preventive care.”

James Gude, a California physician who founded a telemedicine practice called OffSite Care, says that when a doctor conducts a video consultation with the assistance of an on-site nurse and with access to a patient’s records and diagnostic test results, it can be nearly as effective as seeing a patient in person. “With a nurse there to help me examine you, I can order and look at everything I need,” he says. There are also sophisticated “robots” that allow a doctor to see a patient via videoconference and even send instrument readings, allowing the doctor to listen to a patient’s heart through a stethoscope, for example. (A Canadian TV show once followed Gude around as he conducted virtual rounds via a robot he controlled remotely.)

Gude started OffSite Care in 2007 to help rural U.S. hospitals improve their quality of care by providing virtual access to specialists, who are often concentrated in bigger urban hospitals. He expanded his vision of dismantling the geographical barriers to quality care when he teamed up with members of the Rotary Club of Sebastopol Sunrise, California, to create Global OffSite Care — a nonprofit that provides educational and consultative services to hospitals around the world.

“We started by contacting Rotary clubs where Dr. Gude thought there might be an opportunity [to improve a hospital],” says Mikel Cook, a member of the Sebastopol Sunrise club. “The mission of Global OffSite Care is to promote Rotary club-sponsored telemedicine projects. We bring together Dr. Gude’s medical expertise with financing, stewardship, and advocacy among Rotarians.” Cook says Rotary clubs have sponsored the equipment needed to get a hospital started conducting telemedicine, which includes a tablet and a Kubi device that transforms the tablet into a web-controlled mini-robot that can pan and tilt, allowing the user to look around the room. Local doctors are trained on the equipment and can then participate in weekly online “Global Grand Rounds” with Gude’s team to continue their education. They can also consult with experts on difficult cases.

The Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) uses another aspect of telehealth: mobile health, or health care supported by mobile electronic devices, to make progress toward a polio-free world. Mobile phones have been used to track the number of polio vaccine doses children have received, and geographic information systems have helped health workers create detailed maps of their immunization activities.

When the World Health Organization’s African region was certified free of wild poliovirus in August, Christopher Elias, president of the global development division at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, said technology was a contributing factor. One example is how surveillance improved when community health workers were trained to use a mobile app called Avadar (Auto-Visual AFP Detection and Reporting) to report possible polio cases through their phones. Sharing this information electronically allows for quick intervention, preventing outbreaks.

Patricia Merryweather-Arges, a member of the Rotary Club of Naperville, Illinois, predicts that telehealth will continue to expand. “There are lessons we can learn from this,” says Merryweather-Arges, who runs an organization called Project Patient Care and recently secured a Rotary Foundation global grant to distribute more than 200 tablets to residents of Chicago-area nursing homes. The tablets will allow physicians to assess patients via telemedicine, and families to visit with their loved ones via videoconferencing.

“There will have to be some quality assessment, and feedback from patients,” she says. “But the benefits are that telemedicine saves the patient time and lessens their exposure to others, so patients are more likely to make appointments.”

A survey of patients in Asia, Europe, and the United States by the consulting firm Accenture seems to back up her prediction: 60 percent of patients said they wanted to use technology more for communicating with health care providers and managing their conditions.

Gude thinks this presents an opportunity to increase the capacity of underresourced hospitals around the world: “I want Rotary clubs to know that wherever they are, if they want to help a local hospital, if they have $5,000 or if we can raise it from elsewhere, it’s done. We are at a point in the curve where we can go straight up.”

• This story originally appeared in the December 2020 issue of Rotary magazine.

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When clubs cultivate relationships with Rotary alumni, both sides benefit

by Paul Engleman                llustration by Viktor Miller Gausa

It’s always a pleasant surprise for Rotarians to meet someone who notices their Rotary pin and then to learn that the person was once a Rotary Youth Exchange student or Rotary Scholar. These conversations with Rotary alumni are great reminders of how many lives Rotary has had a positive effect on.

Rotary alumni can also have a positive effect on the organization, and many are looking for ways to reengage with Rotary. Chris Offer, a past governor of District 5040 in British Columbia, has seen firsthand what Rotary Peace Centers alumni can bring to the table. He and his wife, Penny, also a past governor of District 5040, were so impressed with the peace centers program that they established an endowment fund to support it; Offer now serves on the Rotary Peace Centers Committee. And peace fellows are only one part of the community of Rotary program alumni. One of them could make a fantastic speaker at your next meeting, bring valuable expertise to your club project, or be a great addition to your membership.

1. Why engage with program alumni?

There’s a great opportunity for Rotary clubs to hear firsthand from alumni — whether it’s Rotary Peace Fellows, Youth Exchange students, Rotaractors, or Rotary Scholars — about their challenges and successes. They’ve been there, they’ve done that, they’ve worked in the field. They can relate their experiences personally, not in an abstract way. Some alumni have incredible stories about how the experience changed their lives.

2. What is the best resource for contacting peace centers alumni for speaking engagements?

The Rotary Peace Fellowship Alumni Association launched an online database last year. The database is voluntary in terms of who wants to be listed on it, so privacy restrictions aren’t an issue. And remember, peace fellows can be consultants as well as presenters. They aren’t just potential speakers to a club or at a conference. The database has a brief description of what kind of consulting they can do and where their expertise lies. If you’re doing a water project, you may need an engineer. If you’re dealing with a peace initiative, you should have someone who can help you avoid faux pas that can arise from cultural differences. Peace fellows bring all sorts of skills and can be a valuable resource.

3. What is the procedure for contacting alumni to speak at meetings or events?

There are no do’s and don’ts. Getting hold of most alumni can be more challenging than contacting peace fellows, because we still don’t have those types of databases readily available for other alumni. If you want a recommendation for a good alumni speaker, the district alumni chair would be a smart place to start, or any of our youth program chairs. If you’re interested in hearing about a vocational training team, you could contact a district grants chair. There are district chairs related to various alumni activities who can help connect you. Keep an eye on who is speaking at other clubs by following them on Facebook and Twitter and be sure to check the social media of the alumni groups. That may give you a lead on a potential speaker.

4. Many clubs have shifted to virtual meetings. How has that changed our engagement with alumni?

Alumni are everywhere around the globe, and with Zoom you can have a speaker from anywhere in the world. People are more available, and alumni are very willing in most cases. Our club had a peace fellow speak to us from London. You could have your Rotary Youth Exchange student talking to you live from a foreign country instead of sending a letter. Whenever the “new normal” finally arrives, one of the legacies for Rotary clubs will be having remote speakers.

• This story originally appeared in the January 2021 issue of Rotary magazine.

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Covid-19 Vaccines

Preparing for your covid-19 vaccine appointment? Important details to prepare you for your visit. Click here for details.

January 11 Update

Clinic Full – South Peninsula Hospital is expecting a shipment of 600 doses of Moderna Covid-19 vaccine from the State of Alaska for a vaccine clinic on January 15 and 16. Sorry, there are no longer appointments available for this clinic, and the stand-by list is full. No walk-ins are permitted at this event.

If you didn’t get an appointment in this round, please be assured another shipment of vaccines will be coming from the State in the coming weeks. When we learn the quantity and date of arrival, we will post information here and plan another community vaccine clinic.

Vaccines are not available at Homer Medical Center or South Peninsula Family Care Clinic at this time.

Who is currently eligible for vaccines in Alaska?

• Persons aged 65 year and older (Phase 1b, Tier 1)
• Health Care Workers (Phase 1a, Tiers 1,2,3)

See the map of vaccine locations statewide

COVID-19 Vaccine Appointment Information

Thank you for making your COVID-19 vaccination appointment for Phase 1a (all tiers) and Phase 1b Tier 1 (seniors age 65 or older) eligible Alaskans.

Please read ALL of the following information carefully – it contains important details about your appointment. You will receive one confirmation email (immediately) with all of this information, and one appointment reminder (1 day before your appointment with all of this information.

Your appointment location is: Christian Community Church, 3838 Bartlett Street in Homer.

Please wear a mask or cloth face covering and maintain a 6 foot distance from others waiting for their appointments with you. Your vaccine will be administered in an open setting, with limited privacy available. Please wear a shirt with short or loose fitting sleeves for easy vaccine administration, and plan for at least a 30-minute visit to complete consent forms, administer dose and for observation. Observation is for 15 minutes after vaccination, or 30 minutes with a known history of severe allergic reaction (anaphylaxis).

Please note your appointment date and time. You will receive an appointment reminder the day before your appointment but it is your responsibility to adhere to your appointment date and time. Both emails contain the link for rescheduling or canceling your appointment, in addition to your appointment date & time and other important details.

By booking this appointment to receive a COVID-19 vaccination, you agree :
– That you will make yourself available on February 12th or 13th to receive your 2nd dose (we will assist you in scheduling your 2nd dose appointment during your 1st dose appointment on January 15th or 16th).
– You have not travelled outside of Alaska within 5 days of your appointment.
– You have not had close contact (shared living space or been within 6 feet for 15 or more minutes) with a COVID-19 case in the 10 days leading up to your appointment.
– You do not have a history of severe vaccine reactions, or allergies to any ingredient in this vaccine (ingredients listed here)

Things to be aware of:
The CDC has strongly recommended that the COVID-19 vaccine not be given if you have also received any other vaccinations within 14 days.

Side effects of the vaccine are flu-like symptoms, which often appear from two to five days post vaccine. These are expected and are signs of immune system response. If you have any symptoms of COVID-19 post vaccine, it is recommended to get tested immediately.

Please do not come in for your vaccination appointment if:
You are experiencing any COVID-19 symptoms.
Symptoms may include: fever (measured or subjective), cough, shortness of breath, or difficulty breathing, decreased appetite, chills, diminished sense of taste or smell, diarrhea, fatigue, headache, muscle/joint aches, nausea, rash, rigors, runny nose, sore throat, or sputum production.

CANCELING OR RESCHEDULING: Please do not book multiple appointments. If you need to reschedule or cancel, click the “Details & Changes” link at the bottom of your notification email or reminder email, then click the “No password?” Get a new one! link and enter the email you used to make your appointment. This will generate your password and email it to you immediately. You can even do this now and save your password for future use or wait and do this only if you need to view, change, or cancel your appointment.

The Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) information sheet for the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine can be viewed here and will be made available at time of vaccination. All vaccine information is posted at the State DHSS vaccine information page here.

Thank you for signing up to receive information regarding COVID-19 vaccines in Homer.

• Begin scheduling vaccinations at noon on Wednesday, Jan. 6 – Alaskans 65 years of age or older can schedule appointments starting noon on Jan. 6 by visiting covidvax.alaska.gov. Vaccinations for older Alaskans (age 65+) will now begin Jan. 11.
•  
• Choose an appointment for Monday, Jan. 11 or later – Alaskans 65 years of age and older can begin getting vaccinated starting Monday, Jan. 11. When scheduling an appointment, please choose a date on Jan. 11 or later.

• DHSS Press Release: Alaskans 65 and older can receive vaccinations starting Jan. 11. Scheduling for those appointments begins Jan. 6

On January 11, 2021, KPBSD expands the onsite-at-school learning option during High COVID-19 Risk

Soldotna, January 5, 2021—KPBSD Pre-K through 6^th grades can attend school onsite, every school day beginning Monday, January 11, 2021, during High COVID-19 Risk. Grades 7-12 will attend onsite two days a week, with a split A/B schedule—schools will be in contact with families to announce the plan they design. When COVID-19 risk levels drop into medium risk*, Grades 7-12 will switch to onsite learning five days a week. The 100% Remote Learning option will continue to be available.
 

Attending school onsite-at-school during high-risk (red) beginning January 11, 2021

• Pre-K through Grade 6: every day, Monday through Friday. This includes 6^th grade at all KPBSD schools
• Grades 7-12: attend two times a week onsite, with a split schedule
• School teams may identify additional at-risk or vulnerable students throughout the semester to attend additional time onsite
• Schools will communicate their plans with students and families. Your patience is appreciated as these schedules are created and shared
• Previously identified vulnerable students may continue to attend five days a week

These changes begin Monday, January 11, 2021, a week earlier than initially thought. Thank you to everyone for actions to reduce community COVID-19 transmission.

Important:

• Shift in 2021: Instead of broad regional decisions to extinguish the onsite learning option, the KPBSD district level team will work with individual schools when a positive COVID-19 case occurs in a school requiring student or staff quarantine, or results in staffing shortages. Thus, you may experience only a classroom or specific school shift to the 100% Remote Learning option
• To keep onsite learning happening and schools open, it is key that everyone follow the plans for health and safety. Thank you for sticking to the KPBSD Symptom Free School protocol
• Bus transportation is provided on a normal schedule, everyone must wear a face covering, and seating plans will be put in place
• Monday, January 18, 2021, is a school holiday for most schools, and the January early release date is cancelled

*How will I know when my school switches to Medium COVID-19 Risk operations (Yellow)?

The KPBSD team continues to monitor COVID-19 spread, health care capacity, and ability to staff and operate schools safely. You will receive an alert when a region will shift to medium risk operations—when this happens, all grades (PreK-12) have the option to attend school onsite, every day. Parents and families will receive a message from the district through School Messenger, and schools will also contact their families when this change would be in effect. Monitor your school risk level on the COVID-19 dashboard.

Sports?

Middle and high school sport seasons will open with high-risk mitigation plans and ASAA protocols in place. Fidelity to these measures will ideally allow an entire season to be played without interruption or cancellation.

Enhanced Safety plans

To keep schools safe and the COVID-19 transmission level low in school, these actions must be followed with fidelity at all times:

• Staff and all ages of students wear a mask at all times
• Mitigation plans at school sites must be faithfully and fully implemented
• Pods or cohorts will be in consistent groups
• 6’ physical distancing needs to occur whenever possible. Physical distance will keep staff and students healthy in school, minimize in-school exposure or transmission, and reduce the number of people who need to quarantine when a positive COVID-19 case occurs
• Most school facilities are receiving upgrades to their HVAC air handling systems. KPBSD is installing O2 Prime in schools that have large central air handling units (that share air with other rooms in the building). Some areas and older schools do not have central air handling units supplying air to different rooms, and these facilities are being addressed differently as KPBSD continues to implement options for O2 Prime in unit ventilators and small furnaces
• Enhanced sanitation with electrostatic sanitizer: spraying Electrolytically Generated Hypochlorous Acid (HOCL) is currently occurring at all schools
• Staff and students: make sure to follow the KPBSD Symptom Free Schools protocol

Links

• Become a substitute in KPBSD, on your own schedule. All positions will be needed
• KPBSD COVID-19 Hub or covid19.kpbsd.org
• KPBSD COVID-19 risk level dashboard
• Helpful flyer: What to Do if You’ve Been Exposed to COVID-19: put your quarantine plan

Ideas to help our kids understand and cope with recent media messages

• Alaska Governor Michael J. Dunleavey sent out an Emergency Alert on November 12, 2020, that students may have received on their cell phones or that they heard other people receive

• In his YouTube Video, Governor Dunleavy asked Alaskans to change their behavior, and said, “The next three weeks are critical. … I’m speaking to you today, because Alaska is facing an escalating crisis that I need your help to solve. … Like the rest of the nation, Alaska’s COVID-19 status is now in the red.” (Source, Alaska.gov website)

Parent Talking Points:

Help kids identify their questions

• What is an emergency alert?
  • We have a National Emergency Alert System that allows alerts to be sent through TV stations, radio and cell phones to alert the public of an emergency. We use them for many different reasons including weather advisories, Tsunami warnings, and missing people are among them (Source)
  • Our Governor used this system this week to let the Alaskan people know that the rate of the spread of COVID is rapidly increasing and give instructions on how we can help slow the spread

• Why is the virus spreading so fast?
  • It is a very, very contagious disease.
  • People are still building the habits of mask wearing and limiting their activities and contacts.

Help kids identify what they know

• They have their family to watch out for them
• School will continue even if remote
• School Staff care about them and want to connect with them
• Scientists are continuing to research the disease and are working on a vaccine (or medicine) to protect us
• They have control over their behavior
• They can connect using phones and technology with their friends

Help kids connect with what they are in control of

• Washing their hands
• Wearing a mask
• Keeping 6 feet away from others
• Limiting the number of people they come in contact with

Help kids recognize the supports they have

• Family and friends
• Teachers and school staff
• Their knowledge of how to help protect themselves

Helpful Links

• Sources of Strength family toolkit
• Kenai Peninsula COVID-19 Risk dashboard: https://covid19.kpbsd.org/dashboard
• KPBSD COVID-19 Hub

Friday, November 13, 2020, marked another significant leap of positive COVID-19 cases on the Kenai Peninsula, so beginning Monday, November 16, 2020, learning at 34 of the 42 KPBSD schools will be 100% Remote for all students. This means that Pre-K, Kindergarten, and Intensive Needs students will not attend school onsite, and education delivery for students enrolled at schools operating in High COVID-19 Risk areas will be delivered remotely via digital platforms or with paper packets.

In an effort to do our part during this acceleration phase of COVID-19 on the Kenai Peninsula, KPBSD must act prudently and proactively. Governor Dunleavy made a plea to Alaskans on Thursday: “I’m going to ask Alaskans to sacrifice a little more by changing their daily routines. If you own a business that can operate remotely, send your employees home. I’m urging municipalities to take similar action and protect your workforce and communities.”

The KPBSD continues to build the plan to bring more students back onsite during high COVID-19 risk, and it is true that school buildings may be one of the safest places to be. However, the extreme phase of exponential spread that is happening now must first be slowed, and begin to trend down before onsite learning can resume. You can track the data yourself on the KPBSD COVID-19 data dashboard—today the state reported an all-time high of 90 positive cases on the Kenai Peninsula. Please do your part—we are all still learning new habits. You know how hard this is, and we are all concerned for everyone’s safety and well-being. It will take effort from each of us in our daily habits and choices to shift this dangerous trajectory.

However, the extreme phase of exponential spread that is happening now must first be slowed, and begin to trend down before onsite learning can resume.

What to know

• Schools will continue to be in contact with their families. If you or a friend are struggling or need assistance, do not wait. Call your school secretary, a teacher, the principal, school nurse, or counselor, if you have questions about materials, packets, mental well-being, or other questions
• Get-It and Go Meals are free for all students during 100% Remote Learning, and can be picked up daily at school between 12:00–1:00. Make sure to place your order by noon on Friday for the following week daily pickup: Signup online for FREE lunch and breakfast meals
• Need some supports for mental wellness? This is a recycle of a free resource for you: Sources of Strength Family Toolkit

Links

• New! Parent tips to talk to kids about COVID-19 alerts to their phones
• KPBSD COVID-19 risk level dashboard
• KPBSD COVID-19 Hub or covid19.kpbsd.org
• Helpful new flyer: What to Do if You’ve Been Exposed to COVID-19: put your quarantine plan into action
• Governor Michael J. Dunleavy’s statewide message the morning of November 12, 2020.

Do you know? “Most Alaskans get COVID-19 from a friend, family member or coworker. Alaskans should avoid indoor gatherings with non-household members, avoid crowds, wear masks when around non-household members and stay six feet from anyone not in their household.” –DHSS, November 13, 2020

100% Remote Learning through Thanksgiving break for all students
Central Peninsula Schools Central Kenai Peninsula includes Kasilof to Sterling, extending through Kenai, Nikiski, Soldotna, and DHSS “other north” communities. Cooper Landing is not included in the 17 Central Peninsula schools:

• Aurora Borealis Charter School
• Kaleidoscope Charter School
• K-Beach Elementary School
• Kenai Alternative School
• Kenai Central High School
• Kenai Middle School
• Mountain View Elementary School
• Nikiski Middle-High School
• Nikiski North Star Elementary School
• Redoubt Elementary School
• River City Academy
• Skyview Middle School
• Soldotna Elementary School
• Soldotna High School
• Soldotna Montessori Charter School
• Sterling Elementary School
• Other North: Tustumena Elementary School

Eastern Kenai Peninsula Schools

• Moose Pass School
• Seward High School
• Seward Middle School
• William H. Seward Elementary

Southern Kenai Peninsula Schools

• Chapman School
• Fireweed Academy
• Homer Flex School
• Homer High School
• Homer Middle School
• Kachemak Selo School
• McNeil Canyon Elementary School
• Nikolaevsk School
• Ninilchik School
• Paul Banks Elementary School
• Razdolna School
• Voznesenka School
• West Homer Elementary School

Small schools are open to onsite learning in low risk
Six small KPBSD schools in Cooper Landing, Hope, Nanwalek, Port Graham, Seldovia, and Tebughna will also continue to operate in low COVID-19 risk, and offer both 100% Remote and onsite-at-school learning options. A shift to 100% Remote Learning could happen at any time if there is positive COVID-19 in these communities.

• Wear a mask with two or more layers to stop the spread of COVID-19.
• Wear the mask over your nose and mouth and secure it under your chin.
• Make sure the mask fits snugly against the sides of your face.

• Remember that some people without symptoms may be able to spread COVID-19 or flu.
• Keeping 6 feet (about 2 arm lengths) from others is especially important for people who are at higher risk of getting very sick.

• Wash hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds.
• Keep hand sanitizer with you and use it when you are unable to wash your hands.
• Use hand sanitizer with at least 60% alcohol.

• Bring your own food, drinks, plates, cups, and utensils.
• Wear a mask, and safely store your mask while eating and drinking.
• Avoid going in and out of the areas where food is being prepared or handled, such as in the kitchen.
• Use single-use options, like salad dressing and condiment packets, and disposable items like food containers, plates, and utensils.

• Have a small outdoor meal with family and friends who live in your community.
• Limit the number of guests.
• Have conversations with guests ahead of time to set expectations for celebrating together.
• Clean and disinfect frequently touched surfaces and items between use.
• If celebrating indoors, make sure to open windows.
• Limit the number of people in food preparation areas.
• Have guests bring their own food and drink.
• If sharing food, have one person serve food and use single-use options, like plastic utensils.

• Check travel restrictions before you go.
• Get your flu shot before you travel.
• Always wear a mask in public settings and on public transportation.
• Stay at least 6 feet apart from anyone who is not in your household.
• Wash your hands often or use hand sanitizer.
• Avoid touching your mask, eyes, nose, and mouth.
• Bring extra supplies, such as masks and hand sanitizer.

• Schedule a time to share a meal together virtually.
• Have people share recipes and show their turkey, dressing, or other dishes they prepared.

• Watch Thanksgiving Day parades, sports, and movies at home.
• Find a fun game to play.

• Shop online sales the day after Thanksgiving and days leading up to the winter holidays.
• Use contactless services for purchased items, like curbside pick-up.
• Shop in open air markets staying 6 feet away from others.

100% Remote Learning is extended for 34 KPBSD schools through at least Friday, November 13, 2020

Soldotna, November 4, 2020—KPBSD operates schools with plans defined in the KPBSD SmartStart 2020 Plan, that was built with approval from the Board of Education, and review and feedback from DEED and DHSS. On Monday, the Board of Education gave district administration a green light to continue working on plans to safely bring students back into schools during High COVID-19 Risk operational levels.

Assistant Superintendent Holland has worked with principals and staff to move in this direction for several weeks when we realized community spread could continue to keep some areas in high risk. A staff survey is being conducted, and parents and older students can expect a survey within the next week so school district leadership can hear from everyone. The hope and plan is to safely bring an onsite at-school learning option to many more students at some point in December if areas are continuing to operate in High Risk.

“Working out the logistics and mitigation plans will take some time but this is our highest priority and we are working expediently. New plans will go to DHSS and DEED for feedback, and the school board for approval and adoption. We fully understand the hardship that moving to remote learning has caused on students, families, and staff. The emotional and mental health toll is real and has been significant. We know many of our students need to be learning onsite at school. We are redoubling our efforts to address mental health concerns for both students and our dedicated staff, especially during this transition period until Smart Start plan changes can be vetted and approved by the Board of Education.”

-Superintendent John O’Brien

When the KPBSD Medical Advisory Team and school district leadership met, on Wednesday, the continued high trend of positive COVID-19 case counts, the 7-Day trends, and contact tracing information from public health, drove the decision that a week extension of 100% Remote Learning is merited for staff and student safety, and to be in alignment with the current Smart Start plan.

• One week extension: Schools in the Eastern Kenai Peninsula and Southern Kenai Peninsula will continue with 100% Remote Learning through at least Friday, November 13, 2020
• Initial two week extension still in place: Central Kenai Peninsula schools will continue with 100% Remote Learning through at least Friday, November 13, 2020
• KPBSD small schools continue in low risk, with onsite-at-school learning option
• KPBSD Connections Homeschool is open

What to know

• Schools will continue to be in contact with their families. If you or a friend are struggling or need assistance, do not wait. Call your school secretary, a teacher, the principal, school nurse, or counselor, if you have questions about materials, packets, mental well-being, or other questions
• Get-It and Go Meals are free for all students during 100% Remote Learning, and can be picked up daily at school between 12:00–1:00. Make sure to place your order by noon on Friday for the following week daily pickup: Signup online for FREE lunch and breakfast meals
• Need some inspiration? This is a recycle of a free resource for you: Sources of Strength Family Toolkit
• Pre-K, Kindergarten, and Special Education Intensive Needs students may still attend school onsite-at-school during 100% Remote Learning, based on the 2020 SmartStart Plan. Schools are in contact with these families directly

Central Peninsula Schools operating in High Risk (Red) Status through at least Friday, November 13, 2020

Central Kenai Peninsula includes Kasilof to Sterling, extending through Kenai, Nikiski, Soldotna, and DHSS “other north” communities. Cooper Landing is not included in the 17 Central Peninsula schools:

• Aurora Borealis Charter School
• Kaleidoscope Charter School
• K-Beach Elementary School
• Kenai Alternative School
• Kenai Central High School
• Kenai Middle School
• Mountain View Elementary School
• Nikiski Middle-High School
• Nikiski North Star Elementary School
• Redoubt Elementary School
• River City Academy
• Skyview Middle School
• Soldotna Elementary School
• Soldotna High School
• Soldotna Montessori Charter School
• Sterling Elementary School
• Other North: Tustumena Elementary School

Eastern Kenai Peninsula Schools operating in High Risk (Red) Status through Friday, November 13, 2020

• Moose Pass School
• Seward High School
• Seward Middle School
• William H. Seward Elementary

Southern Kenai Peninsula Schools operating in High Risk (Red) Status through Friday, November 13, 2020

• Chapman School
• Fireweed Academy
• Homer Flex School
• Homer High School
• Homer Middle School
• Kachemak Selo School
• McNeil Canyon Elementary School
• Nikolaevsk School
• Ninilchik School
• Paul Banks Elementary School
• Razdolna School
• Voznesenka School
• West Homer Elementary School

Small schools

Susan B. English in Seldovia will resume onsite at-school learning on Monday, November 9, 2020.
Five other small KPBSD schools in, Cooper Landing, Hope, Nanwalek, Port Graham, and Tebughna will also continue to operate in low COVID-19 risk, and offer both 100% Remote and onsite-at-school learning options.

*Decision Basis about operations in risk levels

To determine if schools should operate in 100% Remote Learning, or offer options for 100% Remote Learning and onsite at-school learning, district leadership and the KPBSD Medical Advisory Team:

• Analyze the 14-Day positive COVID-19 case counts
• Analyze the 7-Day positivity trend
• Consult with public health contact tracing knowledge, and local medical providers
• Review the KPBSD COVID-19 Positive Case in a School Decision Matrix
• Based on this analysis and scientific data, the medical advisory team (which now includes a mental health professional) closely watch positive cases, types of community spread, and offer informed insights about safely operating schools during a pandemic.

Soldotna, October 28, 2020—KPBSD operates schools with plans defined in the KPBSD SmartStart 2020 Plan, that was built with review and feedback from DEED and DHSS, and approval from the Board of Education. The time we are living in is hard, requires sacrifice, and teamwork. We know there will be an end to the pandemic. As the positive COVID-19 case trend rises, it is important for you to know that the KPBSD Instructional Team is exploring new solutions to safely bring more students back into schools during High Risk (Red) operations, and working with Instructional Support to evaluate logistics and mitigation options.

On Wednesday, the KPBSD Medical Advisory Team and school district leadership met, and determined that with the continued high trend of positive COVID-19 case counts, the 7-Day trends, and contact tracing information from public health, a further extension of 100% Remote Learning is merited for staff and student safety. Everyone acknowledged how difficult the pandemic is, and the stress on families, students, staff, and communities.

One week extension: Schools in the Eastern Kenai Peninsula, Southern Kenai Peninsula, and Susan B. English in Seldovia, will continue with 100% Remote Learning through at least Friday, November 6, 2020

Two week extension: Central Kenai Peninsula schools will continue with 100% Remote Learning through at least Friday, November 13, 2020

Most small KPBSD schools continue in low risk, with onsite-at-school learning option

KPBSD Connections Homeschool is open

Central Peninsula Schools operating in High Risk (Red) Status through Friday, November 13, 2020
Central Kenai Peninsula includes Kasilof to Sterling, extending through Kenai, Nikiski, Soldotna, and DHSS “other north” communities. Cooper Landing is not included in the 17 Central Peninsula schools:

• Aurora Borealis Charter School
• Kaleidoscope Charter School
• K-Beach Elementary School
• Kenai Alternative School
• Kenai Central High School
• Kenai Middle School
• Mountain View Elementary School
• Nikiski Middle-High School
• Nikiski North Star Elementary School
• Redoubt Elementary School
• River City Academy
• Skyview Middle School
• Soldotna Elementary School
• Soldotna High School
• Soldotna Montessori Charter School
• Sterling Elementary School
• Other North: Tustumena Elementary School

Eastern Kenai Peninsula Schools operating in High Risk (Red) Status through Friday, November 6, 2020

• Moose Pass School
• Seward High School
• Seward Middle School
• William H. Seward Elementary

Southern Kenai Peninsula Schools operating in High Risk (Red) Status through Friday, November 6, 2020

• Chapman School
• Fireweed Academy
• Homer Flex School
• Homer High School
• Homer Middle School
• Kachemak Selo School
• McNeil Canyon Elementary School
• Nikolaevsk School
• Ninilchik School
• Paul Banks Elementary School
• Razdolna School
• Voznesenka School
• West Homer Elementary School

Small schools

Susan B. English in Seldovia will extend 100% Remote Learning through Friday, November 6, 2020
Five smaller KPBSD schools continue to operate in low COVID-19 risk, and offer both 100% Remote and onsite-at-school learning options. However, Cooper Landing, Hope, Nanwalek, Port Graham, and Tebughna could pivot to 100% Remote Learning when there are local positive COVID-19 case(s)

What to know

• The KPBSD Instructional Team is analyzing solutions to safely bring more students back into schools during operations in High Risk
• Schools will continue to be in contact with their families to give further instructions. Call your school if you have questions about materials, packets, or other issues
• Get-It and Go Meals are free for all students during 100% Remote Learning, and can be picked up daily at school between 12:00–1:00. Reminder, no meals at schools that have parent-teacher conferences on October 29-30, 2020
• Pre-K, Kindergarten, and Special Education Intensive Needs students may still attend school onsite-at-school during 100% Remote Learning, based on the 2020 SmartStart Plan. Schools are in contact with these families directly
• ASAA Protocols for sports and activities are in effect during High Risk operations

*Decision Basis about operations in risk levels

To determine if schools should operate in 100% Remote Learning, or offer options for 100% Remote Learning and onsite at-school learning, district leadership and the KPBSD Medical Advisory Team:

• Analyze the 14-Day positive COVID-19 case counts
• Analyze the 7-Day positivity trend
• Consult with public health contact tracing knowledge, and local medical providers
• Review the KPBSD COVID-19 Positive Case in a School Decision Matrix
• Based on this analysis and scientific data, the medical advisory team (which now includes a mental health professional) closely watch positive cases, types of community spread, and offer informed insights about safely operating schools during a pandemic.

Helpful Links

KPBSD Smart Start 2020 Plan webpage

KPBSD COVID-19 Hub or covid19.kpbsd.org

KPBSD COVID-19 risk level dashboard

 

Soldotna, October 22, 2020—The opponent named COVID-19 is making headway in Kenai Peninsula communities. As positive cases continue to rise, operating 30 of the 42 KPBSD schools in 100% Remote Learning needs to be extended an additional week. So, schools in both the Central and Southern Kenai Peninsula will continue with 100% Remote Learning through at least October 30, 2020*. A decision about safely returning to the onsite-at-school option for Eastern Kenai Peninsula schools in Moose Pass and the Seward area will be made Friday, October 23, 2020. Seven smaller KPBSD schools continue to operate in low COVID-19 risk and offer both 100% Remote and onsite-at-school learning options. The KPBSD Connections Homeschool is open.

School district leadership and the KPBSD Medical Advisory Team determined that with the continued high positive COVID-19 case counts, the 7-Day trends, and contact tracing information from public health and DHSS, an extension of 100% Remote Learning is merited.

*NOTE: Thursday, October 29, and Friday, October 30, 2020, are parent-teacher conferences for most KPBSD schools (except Kachemak-Selo, Nikolaevsk, Razdolna, and Voznesenka schools), with no school for students or Get-It-And-Go Meals. Schools will directly communicate their plan for conferences to families.

What to know during 100% Remote Learning in COVID-19 High Risk

• Schools will continue to be in contact with their families to give further instructions, call your school if you have questions about materials, packets, or other issues
• Get-It and Go Meals are free for all students during 100% Remote Learning, and can be picked up daily at school between 12:00–1:00. Note: No meals are available on October 29-30, 2020, during parent teacher conference days
• Pre-K, Kindergarten, and Special Education Intensive Needs students may still attend school onsite-at-school during 100% Remote Learning, based on the 2020 SmartStart Plan. Schools are in contact with these families directly
• ASAA Protocols for sports and activities are in effect during High Risk operations

Seventeen Central Peninsula Schools operating in High Risk (Red) Status
Central Kenai Peninsula includes Kasilof to Sterling, extending through Kenai, Nikiski, Soldotna, and DHSS “other north” communities. Cooper Landing is not included in the 17 Central Peninsula schools:

• Aurora Borealis Charter School
• Kaleidoscope Charter School
• K-Beach Elementary School
• Kenai Alternative School
• Kenai Central High School
• Kenai Middle School
• Mountain View Elementary School
• Nikiski Middle-High School
• Nikiski North Star Elementary School
• Redoubt Elementary School
• River City Academy
• Skyview Middle School
• Soldotna Elementary School
• Soldotna High School
• Soldotna Montessori Charter School
• Sterling Elementary School
• Other North: Tustumena Elementary School

Thirteen Southern Kenai Peninsula Schools operating in High Risk (Red) Status
KPBSD schools in Nanwalek, Port Graham, and Susan B. English in Seldovia are considered individually, and remain open to onsite at-school learning at this time.

• Chapman School
• Fireweed Academy
• Homer Flex School
• Homer High School
• Homer Middle School
• Kachemak Selo School
• McNeil Canyon Elementary School
• Nikolaevsk School
• Ninilchik School
• Paul Banks Elementary School
• Razdolna School
• Voznesenka School
• West Homer Elementary School

Additional KPBSD school Updates

• Eastern Kenai Peninsula schools (Seward area) decision will be made Friday, 10-23-20, about return to onsite-at-school learning option as soon as 10-26-20
• Remote KPBSD schools continue in low risk, with onsite-at-school learning option

What you can do

We urge Alaskans to exercise caution and take the following steps to help prevent the spread of COVID-19:

• Do the 3 W’s: Wear a mask, watch your distance and wash your hands

• Avoid the 3 C’s: Crowded places, close contact settings and confined or enclosed spaces. Keep contacts limited and social circles small. Avoid indoor gatherings

• Don’t ride in cars with people who are not in your household bubble

• Limit your errands and outings

• Watch out for COVID-19 symptoms. Get tested even if you have just one symptom or mild symptoms

• Don’t be around others if you are not feeling well. Stay home and isolate immediately

• If you test positive, let close contacts know so they can protect others

• Quarantine quickly if you are exposed to COVID-19, for a full 14 days

*Decision Basis about operations in risk levels
To determine if schools should operate in 100% Remote Learning, or offer options for 100% Remote Learning and onsite at-school learning, district leadership and the KPBSD Medical Advisory Team:

• Analyze the 14-Day positive COVID-19 case counts
• Analyze the 7-Day positivity trend
• Consult with public health contact tracing knowledge, and local medical providers
• Review the KPBSD COVID-19 Positive Case in a School Decision Matrix

Based on this analysis and scientific data, the medical advisory team (which now includes a mental health professional) closely watch positive cases, types of community spread, and offer informed insights about safely operating schools during a pandemic.

October 14, 2020

Four schools in the Eastern Kenai Peninsula will continue to operate in 100% Remote Learning, during High COVID-19 Risk (Red) status

Today the school district leadership and KPBSD Medical Advisory Team met to discuss continued high positive COVID-19 case counts, the 7-Day trends, information from public health and DHSS stating Alaska is experiencing accelerated spread today, and determined an extension of 100% Remote Learning is merited.

Moose Pass, Seward Elementary, Middle, and High School will continue with 100% Remote Learning for one more week, through Friday, October 23, 2020. An evaluation of risk status will be made next week, and an announcement about a return to onsite-at-school learning on October 26, 2020, will be made October 22, 2020, to aid in planning purposes for families and staff.

“The decision to continue to operate KPBSD schools in High COVID-19 risk, with 100% Remote Learning, is not only to address concerns for the safety and wellbeing of our staff and students, but as a school district we play an important role to help our communities mitigate positive COVID-19 spread. By shifting to 100% Remote Learning during periods of high community spread, we lessen the number of large groups of people in one location. Even with our mitigation plans, we have seen an exponential growth of positive cases in our schools this past week. My hope is that we can slow the spread, and reopen schools as soon as Monday, October 26, 2020. We will all know more in the next week as the state catches up with a backlog of positive test results. I sincerely apologize for the strain and mental health concerns that this action puts on families, students, staff, and businesses in an already stressful pandemic.”

Superintendent John O’Brien

What to know during 100% Remote Learning in COVID-19 High Risk

• Schools will contact their families to give further instructions, call your school if you have questions about materials, packets, or other issues
• Get-It and Go Meals are free for all students during 100% Remote Learning, and can be picked up daily between 12:00–12:30. Make sure to order by noon on Friday for the following week. Note: No meals are available on Friday, October 16, 2020—it’s an inservice day for staff, no school for students
• Pre-K, Kindergarten, and Special Education Intensive Needs students may still attend school onsite-at-school during 100% Remote Learning, based on the 2020 SmartStart Plan. Schools contacted these families directly

Central Kenai Peninsula Schools Update:
100% Remote Learning extended for 17 KPBSD schools in the central peninsula due to continued rising positive cases of COVID-19

Today school district leadership and the KPBSD Medical Advisory Team determined that with the continued high positive COVID-19 case counts, the 7-Day trends, contact tracing information from public health and DHSS, an extension of 100% Remote Learning is merited.

The 100% Remote Learning in the central peninsula is extended an additional week, through Wednesday, October 28, 2020. A further determination of a possible additional extension will be made at that time.

NOTE: Thursday, October 29, and Friday, October 30, 2020, are parent-teacher conferences, with no school for students or Get-It-And-Go Meals. Schools will be directly communicating their plan for conferences to families.

What to know during 100% Remote Learning in COVID-19 High Risk

• Schools will continue to be in contact with their families to give further instructions, call your school if you have questions about materials, packets, or other issues
• Get-It and Go Meals are free for all students during 100% Remote Learning, and can be picked up daily at school between 12:00–1:00. Note: No meals are available on October 29-30, 2020, during parent teacher conference days
• Pre-K, Kindergarten, and Special Education Intensive Needs students may still attend school onsite-at-school during 100% Remote Learning, based on the 2020 SmartStart Plan. Schools are in contact with these families directly
• ASAA Protocols are in effect during High Risk operations

Central Peninsula Schools operating in High Risk (Red) Status

Central Kenai Peninsula includes Kasilof to Sterling, extending through Kenai, Nikiski, Soldotna, and DHSS “other north” communities. Cooper Landing is not included in the 17 Central Peninsula schools:

• Aurora Borealis Charter School
• Kaleidoscope Charter School
• K-Beach Elementary School
• Kenai Alternative School
• Kenai Central High School
• Kenai Middle School
• Mountain View Elementary School
• Nikiski Middle-High School
• Nikiski North Star Elementary School
• Redoubt Elementary School
• River City Academy
• Skyview Middle School
• Soldotna Elementary School
• Soldotna High School
• Soldotna Montessori Charter School
• Sterling Elementary School
• Other North: Tustumena Elementary School

Southern Kenai Peninsula Schools Update:
100% Remote Learning extended for 13 KPBSD schools in the southern peninsula due to continued rising positive cases of COVID-19

Today school district leadership and the KPBSD Medical Advisory Team determined that with the continued high positive COVID-19 case counts, the 7-Day trends, contact tracing information from public health and DHSS, an extension of 100% Remote Learning is merited.

The 100% Remote Learning in the southern peninsula (Homer area) is extended an additional week, through Wednesday, October 28, 2020. A further determination of a possible additional extension will be made at that time.

NOTE: Thursday, October 29, and Friday, October 30, 2020, are parent-teacher conferences, with no school for students or Get-It-And-Go Meals. Schools will be directly communicating their plan for conferences to families.

What to know during 100% Remote Learning in COVID-19 High Risk

• Schools will continue to be in contact with their families to give further instructions, call your school if you have questions about materials, packets, or other issues
• Get-It and Go Meals are free for all students during 100% Remote Learning, and can be picked up daily at school between 12:00–1:00. Note: No meals are available on October 29-30, 2020, during parent teacher conference days
• Pre-K, Kindergarten, and Special Education Intensive Needs students may still attend school onsite-at-school during 100% Remote Learning, based on the 2020 SmartStart Plan. Schools are in contact with these families directly
• ASAA Protocols are in effect during High Risk operations

Thirteen Southern Kenai Peninsula Schools operating in High Risk (Red) Status
KPBSD schools in Nanwalek, Port Graham, and Susan B. English in Seldovia are considered individually, and remain open to onsite at-school learning at this time.

• Chapman School
• Fireweed Academy
• Homer Flex School
• Homer High School
• Homer Middle School
• Kachemak Selo School
• McNeil Canyon Elementary School
• Nikolaevsk School
• Ninilchik School
• Paul Banks Elementary School
• Razdolna School
• Voznesenka School
• West Homer Elementary School