We are so happy to have our Scarlets back in the building!

Coming off of the winter break, we anticipated a rise in COVID cases, and West High School, just like our community is experiencing an increased number of positive cases. We continue to encourage our school community to follow the mitigation strategies: social distancing, wearing a mask, getting vaccinated, are all strategies that we strongly encourage.

We will continue to monitor the number of positive cases and communicate to families if we need to increase the intensity of any of our mitigation strategies. Stay tuned!

Covid 19 Information and Updates

Suspected or Confirmed COVID-19 Cases

• Families and staff are asked to notify the school if they have COVID-19 symptoms, test positive for COVID-19, or recently had a close contact with someone with COVID-19.

• Students, staff or participants who test positive for COVID-19 will not be allowed to attend school or activities until all three of the following criteria are met:

• It has been 10 days since they first felt sick or tested positive: and

• They are fever free for 24 hours without using fever reducing medication; and

• Their symptoms have improved and they feel better.

• Students and staff who have tested positive for COVID-19 (fully vaccinated and unvaccinated) are required to stay home for 10 days from symptom start day or test date if asymptomatic (Day 0) and are allowed to return to school on day 11.

Close Contact & Quarantine

• Stay home if you have symptoms of illness and test for Covid-19 with either a PCR or at home antigen test within 3-5 days of last exposure to close contact.

• Identified close contacts at school will be notified of a positive case and will be strongly recommended to quarantine for 10 or 14 days with a new option of 7 days with continuation of monitoring for COVID-like symptoms for 14 days past exposure following the MDH COVID-19 Decision Tree for quarantine and illness.

• If choosing to quarantine for 7 days, 2 Negative at home antigen tests (testing 48 hours apart) or 1 Negative PCR test will be needed to return to school on day 8.

• Unvaccinated Siblings or Staff of a positive household case will be required to quarantine 10 days from their last exposure of the positive case and should consider testing within 3-5 days of last exposure to close contact.

• Fully vaccinated people and those who have had COVID-19 within the past 90 days will not need to be quarantined unless they develop symptoms at which time they need to stay home and test for COVID-19.

https://www.isd77.org/discover-maps/about-maps/covid-19-information

At this time, ISD 77 is continuing to follow the Minnesota Department of Health’s COVID-19 Decision Tree. If you have any questions, please contact the West Health Office at 507-387-3488 or Katie Orchard, Licensed School Nurse at 507-207-3914.

Students who are absent need to be checking Moodle each day for each class. In Moodle, students will find assignments and information on what is happening in class. While we understand that some students are too ill to be doing school work, we encourage students who are home but feeling ok to engage with as much course work as they can.

Wednesday, January 19, is the last day of classes for first semester for all students earning a passing grade for the semester.

On January 20 and 21, we will be running a block schedule (see below) for students who are in danger of failing the semester. Class periods will be 80 minutes long, and will provide students with one last opportunity to demonstrate their learning in an effort to earn a passing grade.

Busses will run on their normal schedule, and the cafeteria will be open all day for students who come to school, but are not required to be in a particular class period. Students in the building will need to be in either their assigned classroom or the cafeteria.

Bottom line, if students are passing all of their classes, their last day of the semester is January 19. Students who have a failing semester grade are required to attend following the schedule below.

Students who have completed any course that is only one semester long should return their textbook prior to the end of the semester so that these texts will be available for students in the second semester. Textbooks for yearlong courses can be kept until the end of the school year.

Students are able to see their second semester schedules in Infinite Campus. Please be reminded to refresh and check schedules just prior to the first day, Tuesday, January 25. Counselors will be working on balancing second semester classes and while students' courses will remain the same, the order may change.

Grad pictures are due to the yearbook by February 28th. Please use this link for information on how to submit your pictures.

Have you checked Naviance recently? More and more scholarship opportunities are being added to this site.

Here are some resources that will keep you up to date on all things Scarlet:

MWHS website

MWHS Family Calendar

West Daily Announcements found in the Parent Portal

Twitter - @BlasingMWHS

January 11

Late Start Day

January 13

Link Crew Academic Follow Up

January 17

No School

MLK Day presentation 1:30pm Auditorium

January 19

Last day of Classes for Semester 1

January 20

Finals - hours 1-4

January 21

Finals - hours 5-7

January 24

No School - Teacher Work Day

January 25

1st Day of Semester 2