“Sierra Vista Unified School District will continue to follow all of our COVID-19 mitigation guidelines as well as current [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] CDC recommendations for the remainder of the 2020-2021 school year,” said SVUSD Public Information Officer Valerie Weller in an email. “This includes masks for all individuals on any school site.”

Arizona Governor Doug Ducey rescinded the mask requirement in Arizona schools with Monday’s executive order. The April 19 press release, outlines that local districts still have the authority to enforce a mask requirement on school campuses amongst other COVID-19 mitigation strategies.

SVUSD Superintendent Dr. Eric Holmes said that all SVUSD staff and parents were informed on Tuesday of the district's decision to continue their COVID mitigation procedures.

"The rescinding of the Governor's mask order does not impact our ability to follow our current mitigation plan and the mitigation plan that was adopted by this board last summer, which requires masks to be worn whenever anyone is on school grounds," said Holmes.

What are your thoughts on this? 

More information about tonight's board meeting below: https://www.myheraldreview.com/news/svusd-continues-mask-requirement-on-all-campuses/article_6e2b6f28-a21c-11eb-9f1d-9b968f787407.html 

Sierra Vista Unified School District recently launched its Creative Arts Learning Lab as an initiative to integrate more instruction in the arts for elementary school students.

“We hope to create opportunities in the arts for our elementary kiddos,” said Carrie Duerk, Buena High School Theater Teacher. “It’s called the Creative Arts Learning Lab rather than one of our theater monikers because we’re really hoping to expand it to be other opportunities like elementary choir or a ceramics lab or all these things with that art brain-body connection. So, our kids can learn in these other ways beyond what they’re doing in their typical six-hour classroom day.”

Currently, the lab includes a theater program, in which elementary students will be learning the basics of acting and theater production in 10 rehearsals to deliver a performance of “Alice in Wonderland” on April 16 at the Rothery Educational Center.

More information below. 

https://www.myheraldreview.com/news/classroom/svusd-implements-creative-arts-learning-lab-for-elementary-students/article_e3becbba-93f1-11eb-9f3d-e31bb14c5cc8.html

Sierra Vista Unified School District Superintendent Dr. Eric Holmes said more than 70% of Buena High School seniors and their parents voted in a survey to have a traditional graduation ceremony.

SVUSD Public Information Officer Valerie Weller said the graduation ceremony will be held at Buena’s Loveless Stadium football field, with one group of students walking on May 26 and the second on May 27 at 7 p.m. both nights. Social distancing and masks will be required throughout the ceremony.

Holmes also gave a COVID-19 update for the board. He reported that Cochise County was in “substantial transmission,” according to the Arizona Department of Health Services COVID-19 benchmarks, which defines an area that has 50-99 new cases per 100,000 individuals as "substantial."

Since Tuesday's board meeting, the ADHS has updated the number of cases and status of transmission in Cochise County. For the week of March 28, the department is reporting the county had 41 new cases per 100,000 individuals, a "moderate spread."

More information below. 

https://www.myheraldreview.com/news/coronavirus/svusd-announces-two-day-outdoor-graduation-provides-covid-19-updates/article_739daf76-974e-11eb-b2d4-0b43be8913d3.html