Message From The Superintendent - December 2020
Greetings!
As we leave November and head into December, I want to express my appreciation and gratefulness. I am grateful for our tremendous staff, families, providers, and the people Portage DD serves. Everyone has done an amazing job. I am grateful everyone has been adapting so well to the environment and can still meet the needs of the people we serve, families, and providers.
At this time, our buildings continue to remain closed to the public, with minimal staff members on-site to manage an essential business that cannot be completed remotely. Unfortunately, like so many other agencies throughout the state, COVID-19 has also impacted Portage DD. During November, our school had to shut down for one week due to a staff member’s positive case. The close contact forced several staff members to quarantine. As a team, we were able to weather the storm but realized there could be more storms ahead due to the virus's increased community spread.
To ensure our students, families, and staff's safety, we continue to meet weekly with the Portage County Health Department and talk more frequently, if needed, regarding keeping Happy Day School open and what measures we should implement to continue in-person classes. After discussing these topics with the Health Department, we feel Portage DD is doing everything in our power to create a safe learning environment so our students can continue in-person classes. As an added measure, we have decided to bring in additional staff. So far, we have hired four staff back to make sure we can keep the school operating.
As an entire agency, we have had a more difficult month in November when it comes to the virus. Overall, we have had five staff test positive and had to quarantine six other staff. COVID-19 has also had a greater impact on the people we serve more in November. In April, Portage DD had four people served test positive for the virus and no positive cases in March or May. In November, we had five people we serve test positive in November. Unfortunately, the number of cases we are dealing with, throughout the county, state, and country, increases.
Even with the increase in cases, our agency, like so many others, has been working remotely. Remote working has been a new experience for a lot of our staff, but the team has adapted well to working remotely and using technology to support the people and families we serve. While they are not preferred, in-person visits & meetings are still possible with safety procedures in place and based on the person, staff, and/or family's comfort level. We are optimistic sometime next year, with the vaccine coming, we can begin exploring more of an in-person and remote hybrid model of service.
Portage DD had our annual staff in-service training on November 6th. Over the course of the day, Portage DD had four terrific speakers covering the topics of workplace ethics, human trafficking, special needs, and diversity and inclusion. As a team, we also were able to discuss the direction of the Portage County Board of DD for the future, emphasizing creating more services and needs to contribute to the people we serve, families, and Providers to enhance their quality of life. We also reinforced our mission to improve things internally and externally by treating everyone with kindness, respect, empathy, transparency, and care. Also, we expressed to our staff just the overwhelming gratefulness for all they have done and continue to do for the people we serve, families, and providers. They have truly been fantastic!
One of my goals as Superintendent is to identify areas of improvement for our agency and work on them. For this reason, we completed a survey for families that have students in the 3 to 21 age group. Please take the time to fill this out and send back. We will mail this out to all families that have a child from age 3 to 21. We also will put it on our Facebook and website for those that would prefer that method. It is imperative to fill this out because we are trying to add programs and services to help that age group, but we really want to find out what the needs are, so we focus our efforts in the right direction. This should be sent out soon.
I cannot say thank you enough to all the providers that improve the quality of life for the people we serve. They continue to be incredible! They are the ones who keep our system working. Hats off to them due to these unprecedented issues and keeping the people we serve as their priority. Great job, everyone!
Thank you again for your continued support. We are extremely grateful for all your support! We will get through this together! Portage DD will continue to be available via phone, email, and virtual meeting (ZOOM or TEAMS) as we navigate these unique times together. Portage DD will continue to strive to meet and exceed your expectations.
WE ARE HERE FOR YOU.
Sincerely,
John Vennetti