As we enter the home stretch of the school year, it’s important that all of us are reminded of the little things we can do to ensure a safe and successful final 10 weeks of school. Unfortunately, COVID-19 infections have been on the rise across our state in the last several weeks. We have experienced this increase locally within our staff and student body. It is not a time to overreact, but to respond appropriately with a re-doubling of effort to keep our schools safe and open for in-person learning.

Here’s what you can do to help:

• Please check your students for symptoms daily prior to sending them to school. This simple step is vital to the daily, uninterrupted operation of our schools. A single positive case in our schools can lead to 30-40 other students being quarantined. We have more than 2,000 individual quarantines since October. These quarantines have a detrimental impact on our students and staff, so we must do our best to keep them at a minimum.

• Any student exhibiting symptoms of COVID-19 should stay home. COVID- 19 symptoms include fever, cough, shortness of breath or difficulty breathing, fatigue, muscle or body aches, headache, new loss of taste or smell, sore throat, congestion or runny nose, nausea or vomiting, and diarrhea. We recognize identifying symptoms can be tricky, so please click here for our daily screening tool to assist you.

• Please encourage safe and appropriate behavior outside of school. It is incredibly important that our students understand that the health and safety guidelines they follow in school are also important outside of school. After-school activities that involve students from multiple households in close proximity without masks, especially indoors, have proven to be significant spreaders of COVID-19. The vast majority of the positive cases we have seen in our schools can traced to these activities. Students should keep their distance whenever possible, wear a mask and encourage others to do the same. These are simple steps to stopping the spread and keeping our schools open. 

Finally, we recognize that many students and parents are looking forward to traditional year-end events. These events are incredibly important to us, and we know how much they mean to your students. Please know that we are doing everything we can to ensure our students, especially our seniors, are able take part in these traditions. Things may look a little different but, as you have seen in the recent past, we are committed to doing what is right by our students. 

Thank you for your support and patience as we continue to meet the challenges of the pandemic every day.

Regards,

Matt Wandrie – LCS Superintendent