Guilford County Schools is encouraging the use of a tool to help address personal protective equipment concerns as more students are heading back to classrooms this month.
The app is called “Let's Talk.” It allows a staff member, parent, student, or even someone in the community to anonymously report PPE shortages or other COVID-related concerns.
“It's one more way to try to resolve the disconnect between the records and the information that we have at the district level that says PPE for students and staff has been delivered to schools and still getting some sporadic reports from teachers expressing concern that they don't have what they need,” says Nora Carr, chief of staff for the school system.
The district has been using the application for a few years to connect with the school community on a number of topics.
“We want to be able to answer parents' and employees' questions as quickly as possible,” she says. “This helps us do that and keeps track of how long it takes to answer a question and how many questions we are getting.”
Carr says most questions or concerns submitted through “Let's Talk" are responded to within 48 hours.
From July 1-November 12, the district received around 1,300 inquiries through the application.
Carr says staff members from the GCS central office are also going out to schools to check in about PPE and safety measures.
Pre-k through second grade returned to classrooms on this week.
As of Thursday, the Guilford County Schools COVID-19 Dashboard shows six active student cases and 68 active employee cases.
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