I have received some questions this week with regard to our health protocols, and I figured it would be a great time to reinforce what we currently have in place across the district. I will also attach the Monroe County Department of Health (MCDOH) flow charts to this bulletin so that you can see the steps we take with regard to safety. The questions have come up as a result of specific incidents involving students and parents wanting to make the correct choices for their children and families. To distill the flow charts into their simplest form; a student or staff member is not to report to school if they have any of the following symptoms:

• Temperature greater than 100 ºF (37.8 ºC) or higher
• New cough Shortness of breath
• Sore throat (not due to allergies)
• Muscle or Body aches
• Loss of taste or smell
• Nasal Congestion
• Nausea or vomiting
• Diarrhea
• Fatigue
• Headache

Students are unvaccinated, but even vaccinated staff with symptoms must stay out unless they receive an alternate diagnosis, a negative COVID test, or are cleared from quarantine.

Unvaccinated students and staff have a different path to follow from a vaccinated staff member. They must quarantine for 10 days from the last contact with the COVID-19 case and be cleared from quarantine or isolation from MCDOH.

If there are multiple children in your house, it is common to have illness happening in stages. If one family member is sick, the students can come to school as long as they have no symptoms and there is no determination of COVID exposure. If the illness is determined to be COVID, then quarantine/isolation should happen immediately for unvaccinated students.

If you have any questions related to the flow charts or situations in your household, it is recommended that you play it safe and call the school nurse. Mrs. Day can be reached at 637-1842. You can also leave a message on our attendance line and Mrs. Snell will forward messages to Mrs. Day. The attendance line is available 24 hours a day at 637-1841.

Masking is our best barrier to prevent students from having to quarantine. If a student regularly wears their mask over their nose and mouth while in school, they should be able to remain in school even if there has been a COVID positive in their classroom. Any instance of a positive COVID case in school will be contact traced by building administration. This contact tracing is vital to determining if anybody else may have been exposed to the positive staff member or student. If the COVID positive individual wore their mask regularly within 6 feet of others and all of the others coming in contact with that individual also wore their masks regularly, then there is no need for additional isolation or quarantines. If any of the individuals were within 6 feet of each other for more than 15 minutes where their masks were not over their nose and mouth, then there will be a exposure and a need to quarantine. Based on the classroom arrangements, it could be possible that 8 or more students could have to quarantine if mask wearing is not consistent.

I know that some of my masks have taken a beating over the past year and don't fit as snugly as they once did, so I have had to replace my worn out masks. It is also difficult to find correctly fitting masks for some students. Please do your best to remind students about the importance of mask wearing while indoors. Outside, they are free to remove their masks, but are allowed to keep them on. You must choose what works best for your family.

We really want to help students stay in school as much as possible so that their education will be consistent this year. We appreciate your efforts in keeping everybody safe.