We would like to share some information about our district and ask for your help in completing a survey for future planning.
To begin, we had a positive case of COVID at the Elementary on Wednesday of this week that impacted many students and an entire classroom. Our current case originated outside the building and impacted multiple families who happened to all be connected in some form or fashion. The instant a report of the positive case was made our nursing staff and administrative/teaching team began tracing within the district, contacted families who were connected to the case and began quarantine of all involved. At this time we have effectively closed a Kindergarten classroom, and quarantined an additional 25 students and 5 staff members. I want to make clear that while we have quarantined a large group of people we only are aware of a single positive case at this time. It is our goal to continue our current daily learning schedule and we will continue to monitor the situation for any increases in reported positive and/or symptomatic cases. Please be vigilant in monitoring your family for symptoms related to COVID and report those on our daily screening tool. Being proactive will certainly improve chances of reducing the number of day’s students and staff are quarantined. If you have questions in regards to how we make decisions involving students and staff quarantine you may look to the recent guidance given to local districts on our Forms and Documents page. Needless to say, tracking, contacting and recording information related to COVID cases is extremely time consuming and stressful but our Nursing staff has done an exceptional job of insuring we are meeting guidelines and have been excellent ambassadors for our district. Please understand that when they contact you they are doing what is expected of them by IDPH and are doing their very best to insure students and staff remain safe.
With that in mind, as we progress through the school year we are always considering when we should consider revising our return to learn plan. We are currently utilizing a split “A/B” schedule that allows for the district to maintain social distancing and mitigates large group quarantine or a return to full remote learning. In our most recent event we are able to allow an “A” day portion of a classroom and the remainder of a building to maintain their in-person learning. While this might not be the case in every situation, the plan is certainly designed to reduce exposure to students and thereby reducing the spread of the COVID Virus. As we learn more about COVID and our State Officials reconsider current rules we need to be prepared to move to more in-person learning opportunities. While we still have lots of obstacles to overcome we want to be prepared with a plan that is safe, meets the needs of our families and addresses our families concerns in relation to COVID-19. As such, we ask that you complete the survey found at this Survey Link before October 9, 2020. Your input coupled with current guidelines and PORTA Staff survey results will be utilized to develop plans for our in-person learning program.
Thank you in advance for completing our survey and remaining vigilant in your assessment of our student’s health. We all need to work as a team to provide the best possible education we can in these weird and uncertain times.
To begin, we had a positive case of COVID at the Elementary on Wednesday of this week that impacted many students and an entire classroom. Our current case originated outside the building and impacted multiple families who happened to all be connected in some form or fashion. The instant a report of the positive case was made our nursing staff and administrative/teaching team began tracing within the district, contacted families who were connected to the case and began quarantine of all involved. At this time we have effectively closed a Kindergarten classroom, and quarantined an additional 25 students and 5 staff members. I want to make clear that while we have quarantined a large group of people we only are aware of a single positive case at this time. It is our goal to continue our current daily learning schedule and we will continue to monitor the situation for any increases in reported positive and/or symptomatic cases. Please be vigilant in monitoring your family for symptoms related to COVID and report those on our daily screening tool. Being proactive will certainly improve chances of reducing the number of day’s students and staff are quarantined. If you have questions in regards to how we make decisions involving students and staff quarantine you may look to the recent guidance given to local districts on our Forms and Documents page. Needless to say, tracking, contacting and recording information related to COVID cases is extremely time consuming and stressful but our Nursing staff has done an exceptional job of insuring we are meeting guidelines and have been excellent ambassadors for our district. Please understand that when they contact you they are doing what is expected of them by IDPH and are doing their very best to insure students and staff remain safe.
With that in mind, as we progress through the school year we are always considering when we should consider revising our return to learn plan. We are currently utilizing a split “A/B” schedule that allows for the district to maintain social distancing and mitigates large group quarantine or a return to full remote learning. In our most recent event we are able to allow an “A” day portion of a classroom and the remainder of a building to maintain their in-person learning. While this might not be the case in every situation, the plan is certainly designed to reduce exposure to students and thereby reducing the spread of the COVID Virus. As we learn more about COVID and our State Officials reconsider current rules we need to be prepared to move to more in-person learning opportunities. While we still have lots of obstacles to overcome we want to be prepared with a plan that is safe, meets the needs of our families and addresses our families concerns in relation to COVID-19. As such, we ask that you complete the survey found at this Survey Link before October 9, 2020. Your input coupled with current guidelines and PORTA Staff survey results will be utilized to develop plans for our in-person learning program.
Thank you in advance for completing our survey and remaining vigilant in your assessment of our student’s health. We all need to work as a team to provide the best possible education we can in these weird and uncertain times.