School Update/ES Face Coverings
12/4/20
Face Coverings To Be Required For Grades 3-5 Beginning Jan. 4, 2021
Dear Bulldogger Families,
Beginning January 4, 2021, Dewey Elementary School will be requiring that students in grades 3rd, 4th, & 5th wear face coverings while in school. As you may recall, we started the year requiring face coverings at our HS and MS sites but only recommended it for our ES. Based on the recent and continual rise in COVID-19 community transmission rates in the Dewey/Bartlesville area, we believe it's time to ask our younger students to do the same. While we still believe it's important and we encourage all students to wear a face covering at school, we believe it's much easier for our older ES students to adjust to a mid-year transition like this and can adhere to the guidelines with much more effectiveness than our younger ES students. Additionally, our older ES grade levels have been negatively affected in greater numbers due to positive tests and quarantines over the first half of the year and have missed a significant number of in-person learning days. While our goal is to continue to keep everyone as safe as possible, we also hope to reduce the number of student and staff quarantines as we enter the back half of our school year. We can only do this if we reduce the number of staff and students that contract the virus.
The following outlines the face covering requirement:
- When students in grades 3-5 enter a school building, they will be required to wear a face covering.
- Teachers will provide a 10-15 minute face covering break every hour of the day that students are in school.
- The face covering break will be scheduled to occur when students are in the classroom, sitting in their assigned area, and physically distanced.
- No face coverings required at recess and PE (when active)
- No face coverings required while eating.
- An school approved face covering can be any one of the following:
- Cloth face mask covering nose & mouth (Students have received multiple cloth masks provided by the school early in school year)
- Neck gaiter/buff (Supplied by the school early in school year)
- Clear face shield (mainly for those who have troubles wearing a cloth face covering - school has supplied these as well)
We still have a limited supply of student masks. Please contact the Elementary School office at 918-534-3800 if you have questions.
Vince Vincent
Superintendent
New CDC Quarantine Guidelines and School Case Updates
NEW QUARANTINE GUIDELINES
The new guidelines are as follows:
- The standard 14 day quarantine can be reduced to 10 days and self monitor for 4 additional days after last exposure as long as there are no symptoms present.
- The 10 day quarantine can be reduced to 7 days after exposure if a person has a negative COVID test and has had no symptoms. (The test can be a PCR or rapid test to qualify and must occur within 48 hours of day 7 of quarantine).
In addition, the following actions should be followed for 14 days after exposure when a shortened quarantine is utilized:
- Daily symptom monitoring
- Mitigation strategies, including correctly and consistently wearing a face covering and social distancing
It's important to note that for those who test positive for COVID-19, the isolation period of 10 days remains unchanged.
SCHOOL COVID-19 CASE UPDATE
We were notified this week that one staff member and six students have tested positive for COVID-19. Four of these cases were reported from last week while we were out of school for Thanksgiving Break and the other three were reported early in the week from individuals who did not return to school after the break. Consequently, there have been no school-related quarantines issued this week due to contact tracing at school. We are currently monitoring 4 other students who are awaiting test results from this week.
Here is the breakdown of the latest positive cases:
ES - 1 Staff Member & 3 Students
MS - 2 Students
HS - 1 Student
Have a good weekend and stay safe.