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BURLINGTON — With the first confirmed case of coronavirus in Chittenden County, the Burlington School District advised parents Friday to prepare for potential school closures.
“Parents, please start preparing your families for the possibility of school closures, including the care of children if you need to continue to work outside of the home,” Superintendent Yaw Obeng wrote in an email to staff and families Friday morning.
Obeng wrote the district had been preparing for the possibility of closure for the last week and half. He wrote that the district was advocating “for preemptive action as soon as possible” in conversations with the Vermont Agency of Education and the Department of Health.
“We have been developing: virtual learning plans, backpack resources for elementary, and strategies to feed children while school is closed,” he wrote. “And we have been identifying students with IEPs (Individual Education Plans) and special assistance, developing translated messages, and considering ways to support parents with childcare at the younger ages, etc.”
Mayor Miro Weinberger announced Thursday evening that the city had launched the emergency operations center and would be instituting its work from home plan for city employees Monday.
“We will continue all city services but employees who are able to perform their work from home will do so,” Weinberger said. “The goal of this measure is social distancing, and having fewer people in our workplaces in order to lessen the spread of any contagious illnesses.”
Weinberger said he was focused on slowing transmission of the virus in the city, continuing providing city services and ensuring health and safety of city employees and residents.
In an interview with VTDigger Wednesday, Weinberger said the city was preparing its organization for the spread of the virus and had updated its continuation of operations plan.
Weinberger said the city is focusing on ensuring its ability to continue to provide essential services if the outbreak becomes widespread, including providing electricity, water, and emergency services, including clearing of streets if there were a snowstorm.
The city has also established a communications network with major institutions and large employers in the city.
“We can get information out to them, best practices out to them, we can understand what questions these organizations have, whether they have concerns,” Weinberger said. “So if we get to the point where some kind of decisive action is necessary, we have the ability to coordinate that and let these major organizations know what is going on and get their help implementing it.”
Weinberger said the city had created a similar communication network with community organizations that work primarily with the elderly, who are at a higher risk.
The decision to close schools would be a significant threshold that could spark work from home plans and other measures, Weinberger said.
“I think that, for all employers, including the city, as a practical matter, may well be a moment when we would consider the work from home plan or some of these other other measures,” he said.
Weinberger said he supported the University of Vermont’s decision to instruct its students to not return to campus and to shift to online learning. He said he believed the decision likely will help limit the spread of the virus in the community.
“I think we all look forward to when this type of decision can be lifted, but I’m supportive they’ve taken this action,” he said.
The city has also stepped up its cleaning protocols for surfaces in City Hall and other city buildings, installed hand sanitizers throughout city facilities and the airport and inserted new signage in bathrooms on hand-washing tips.
“Emergency service personnel also have new protocols for how calls are screened in the dispatch center, and how our emergency service personnel respond,” Weinberger said. “We’ve already implemented changes in practice there as well.”
