Urgent Message to Parents

Good Afternoon New Horizons Charter Academy Parents and Guardians, 

I hope everyone had a good holiday break with their families and friends. We are again facing very challenging times with the new Omicron variant and have seen a significant increasing numbers of cases in LA County of COVID19 infections. I hope none of you or your children have been infected over the winter break. Due to the recent activity of infectious case rates, New Horizons Charter Academy will be implementing the following measures as recommended by Los Angeles Unified School District and Los Angeles County Office of Education and Los Angeles Department of Health. NHCA will plan for the following measures:

1) NHCA will open for staff on January 10th for staff professional development during Pupil-Free Day and January 11th for all students. 

1. NHCA has determined for the safety of all students and staff NHCA will require a PCR or Rapid Antigen Test with a negative result prior to attending school on Tuesday January 11th, 2022.  NHCA has acquired enough Rapid Antigen tests for all students and staff. 
2. The Lankershim Site will be open from 8:00 to 4:00pm, Wednesday through Friday, and Saturday from 9am to 1pm, for parents to bring their student to get tested prior to January 11th. Parents can utilize our on-site rapid antigen test starting Wednesday, January 6th through January 10th. 
3. Parents may also go to any local agency or CVS/Walgreens/Hospital and obtain a rapid antigen test or PCR and present their COVID19 test results prior to attending on Tuesday morning, January 11th.
4. If parents do not get either a PCR or Rapid antigen test prior to the morning of 11th of January they will need to come to school during 11 to 12:30, testing timeframe, that CoVerify is on-site and get a PCR test done on-site, Tuesday, January 11th. Any Fair Ave students that do not have a prior PCR or Rapid Antigen Test , will have to come to Lankershim to get tested before being allowed onto Fair campus. They can not get tested by CoVerify on-site at Fair because LAUSD requires a negative baseline test before coming on campus.
5. Additionally, due the widespread infection rate seen with this recent Omicron variant, going forward, the following Tuesday, January 18th, NHCA will begin testing all students at Lankershim Site TK-4th grade each week, which has been the same process at Fair Ave. Campus for our 5th-8th grade students.  This will insure that we are able to monitor and determine any infectious students. 
6. If anyone in your family has received a positive test in the past 10 days please notify the school. No student can be allowed on campus until a 5 day quarantine has occurred if they had COVID19 positive case during the holiday day break or have been exposed to someone in the past 10 days. Please make sure to keep your child at home. The school will discuss the next steps and make sure we have the proper number of days for the quarantine and negative PCR test before they return. 
7. If your child has any COVID19 symptoms on January 10th or morning of 11th of January, please do not send students to campus for any reason. This is a highly contagious time! Do not give fever-reducing medicine or cough syrup and send to school. NHCA treats all flu/cold symptoms as COVID19 Symptoms. NHCA limited extra staff, so please keep your children home if they are in any way not feeling well. We have to be safe for all of us. 

Thank you, 

Mr. Thomas