October 15, 2021 Update
At the beginning of this school year we announced that we could offer saliva based testing at school on a weekly basis through the University of Illinois Shield program. We collected information and had a confirmed start date of September 9, 2021. Unfortunately, Shield was overwhelmed with responses and were unable to process many districts’ requests because of lack of staffing, planning and general covid related issues. On Friday, October 15th I was notified by Shield that they are preparing to begin our testing program. The district will meet with Shield Staff on Wednesday October 20th to set a date to begin testing. I apologize for the delay in this voluntary program and understand that your family may have second thoughts about participating in the saliva based covid testing program. Please remember the Shield program is separate from our “Test to Stay” Program. If you have already indicated that you were interested in the Shield testing program and would prefer to opt out please email your school nurse or building principal to let them know. If you originally did not opt into the program and wish to at this juncture please do the same and contact your school nurse or principal.
Currently, our Covid statistics are very good, only two in quarantine and 3 positive cases, all of which had no contact with students so no students in test to stay at this time. We are less than a ½ % of students and staff quarantined or positive.
The district’s test to stay program has been a tremendous success and has kept students in the classroom at a very high rate. We want to thank our families for working with us through these difficult times. We understand the levels of stress everyone is under and appreciate the efforts by all. We hope that we will have some relief from those stressors in the near future and families can once again enjoy the simple pleasures of the upcoming holiday seasons without having that nagging feeling of covid in the background.
Please take care and have a wonderful weekend.
At the beginning of this school year we announced that we could offer saliva based testing at school on a weekly basis through the University of Illinois Shield program. We collected information and had a confirmed start date of September 9, 2021. Unfortunately, Shield was overwhelmed with responses and were unable to process many districts’ requests because of lack of staffing, planning and general covid related issues. On Friday, October 15th I was notified by Shield that they are preparing to begin our testing program. The district will meet with Shield Staff on Wednesday October 20th to set a date to begin testing. I apologize for the delay in this voluntary program and understand that your family may have second thoughts about participating in the saliva based covid testing program. Please remember the Shield program is separate from our “Test to Stay” Program. If you have already indicated that you were interested in the Shield testing program and would prefer to opt out please email your school nurse or building principal to let them know. If you originally did not opt into the program and wish to at this juncture please do the same and contact your school nurse or principal.
Currently, our Covid statistics are very good, only two in quarantine and 3 positive cases, all of which had no contact with students so no students in test to stay at this time. We are less than a ½ % of students and staff quarantined or positive.
The district’s test to stay program has been a tremendous success and has kept students in the classroom at a very high rate. We want to thank our families for working with us through these difficult times. We understand the levels of stress everyone is under and appreciate the efforts by all. We hope that we will have some relief from those stressors in the near future and families can once again enjoy the simple pleasures of the upcoming holiday seasons without having that nagging feeling of covid in the background.
Please take care and have a wonderful weekend.