Principal's Newsletter
January 5, 2022
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COVID Update
WHS Students and Families,
Thank you for your continued patience and support while we manage the first swell of COVID cases in our building. Monday's pooled testing resulted in 32 positive pools with some of those pools having more than one positive case. We have been working tirelessly to identify positive cases and take steps to limit any community spread.
Some in our school community have shown concern regarding Monday’s testing and the fact that some students were asked not to be tested. The restriction to our pool testing refers to those students who have tested positive for COVID within the past 90 days. This has always been our practice for pool testing. Because of the sensitivity of a PCR test, students who have fully recovered from COVID may still test positive despite being fully recovered and not contagious. We ask students who have tested positive in the past 90 days not to participate in pool testing because it causes the entire pool to show as positive, forcing us to retest everyone in the pool. As always, if your student is symptomatic, please bring them to Lowell West (175 Main St., Waltham) before school, for a rapid test.
Others have asked about symptomatic students in class that have gone through the CDC quarantine period of 5 days. At this time, the district has decided to follow the CDC guidelines of a strict 5-day quarantine and a 5-day strict mask mandate. Some students that have recovered from COVID and are not deemed contagious may still be experiencing longer term symptoms. We are not restricting students from school if they have been fever free for 24 hours, gone through the CDC's recommended quarantine, and have improved symptoms. At this time we are not requiring a negative test to return to school after having COVID and following the quarantine guidelines.
The past two days I have spoken to students on the PA regarding safety measures that must be followed including appropriate mask wearing, distancing, and noticeable changes to the lunch period. These changes include sprawling the eating area beyond the cafeteria and strictly enforcing 6' distancing. Per CDC guidelines, students recently returning from a quarantine will need to eat in a separate area, follow stricter masking guidelines, and dine with greater distance between them. I have also reminded students to care for one another, be mindful that some are medically compromised or have medically compromised family members, and to smile at each other with their eyes :-)
I know this may be a scary time for our students and staff. I appreciate you entrusting your students to me and assure you that we are doing what we can to keep everyone safe.
Guidance update
Please join us on Zoom at 8:15 AM on January 13th.