Assalaamu Alaykum, Dear Parents,

I hope and pray that this email finds you in the best of spirits. I am following up on my message sent yesterday, to provide you further information on how we plan to move forward in the coming weeks. InshAllah it will be in a manner that is focused on what is best for the health of our students, staff, community, and for the continuation of learning.

The situation with COVID-19 is rapidly evolving with new strains being discovered. Following winter break, we were informed of multiple individuals within our community who had confirmed cases, and some of us are sadly hearing news of people we know who have passed.

Alhamdullilah, we are grateful that we had promptly taken the proper safety measures, and remained virtual. Thus, preventing any further contact, and transmission within our community. SubhanAllah, COVID-19 is an unfortunate reality we are facing, and sadly, it is beginning to hit home. We were hoping and planning until late last week to have the hybrid students return as planned on the 1st of February, but as the week was progressing, unfortunately, there were certain critical factors which compelled us to delay the return.

Although, the stay at home order has been lifted, we are still in the purple and most restrictive tier, and cases are continuing to develop at a rapid rate. As we look across the national, and local landscape, continuation of student learning remaining virtual has become a common practice. Some schools may have reopened part time, but we are learning that many are also continuing to deal with positive and confirmed cases within their schools. This scenario seems to be playing out in increasing numbers across our county, state, and nation. The level of anxiety caused by this emergent situation is also problematic overall for everyone in the school setting. Resulting in many of the major districts like San Diego Unified remaining closed.

We now know the virus is active in our community, and transmitted by people who are both symptomatic and asymptomatic. It seems reasonable that we act now to minimize contact prior to further cases being identified amongst our very own students and staff, which could lead to an emergency shut down. To that end, it is my intent to clarify our measured strategy for moving forward.

While we understand this extension may be frustrating to some of you and your children, I believe that the thoughtful and prudent approach, is to strategically and carefully plan our shift from virtual learning back to our hybrid in-person learning model as safely and thoughtfully as possible, while keeping the safety of our staff and students, and their education our top priority.

Although, we cannot totally control this virus, its spread, or its impact, we can control how we fulfill our responsibility to educate our students for the future. I mentioned previously that, Educators are next for the vaccine, and thus we feel it’s safest to wait, until the staff is vaccinated. However, we will continue to monitor the situation, and reassess our plans continuously following state and county directives, and will provide you with regular updates as appropriate.

In the meantime, should you have any further questions or concerns, I urge you to communicate with the school directly via email, avoiding social platforms such as WhatsApp, as school related questions can only be answered by the school. Please direct your communication to the following email addresses: sweeta.behnawa@issdweb.org, principal@issdweb.org

May Allah bless you all, and your families for your grace, patience and understanding, as we navigate through these unprecedented times together. We are fortunate to have such supportive parents as part of our BHA community. We are all in this together, and only together, will we be able to get through this Insha’Allah.

Have a wonderful weekend.

Jazakumullahu Khairan, Wassalaam

Muhammad Aftab Diwan