Dear Parents and Families,
I hope that this letter finds you well.
I want to draw your attention to a couple of items: The new DHM went into effect at 12:01 a.m. on Wednesday. Many of the changes turned former recommendations into state mandates. Many of them apply to public businesses and restaurants. They will affect schools by limiting the number of fans in gyms. The new rules only allow immediate family that live in the same household with one of the participants to attend games. Spectators will sit with their immediate household in groups no larger than 8 and have 6 feet between other groups. This number can still not be more than 25% capacity. Everyone at these events will have to wear a mask at all times except for the active participants. Please note that all of these DHM’s are subject to change and could between now and our first contests. We are working to provide Striv for both of our gyms so that those that are unable to attend under the new DHM will still be able to see our students compete.
If you have seen any local news lately you already know that the number of COVID cases in our state and immediate area have risen fairly significantly. As I write this note our county and our health district are in the red area of the risk dial. This has affected us at school as well. We have students and staff that have had to quarantine due to high risk exposure outside of the school day and in some cases due to positive tests. After discussing things with Public Health Solutions, we will no longer be sending individual letters or emails due to low-risk exposure at school. The only time that we will contact you will be if your child has had a high risk or close contact exposure. We are continuing to work with Public Health Solutions to make sure parents are contacted if their child is deemed to have had a high risk or close contact exposure.
We are continuing our protocols. The state and local health authorities continue to tell us that schools that are following these protocols are a safe place for students and staff.
Please continue monitoring your child(ren) for symptoms. The reasons you should have your child stay home would be for the following reasons:
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Fever 100.4 or above and/or one or more of the following symptoms: a new cough, new onset of shortness of breath or new loss of taste or smell.
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They, or someone in the household has tested positive for COVID or are showing COVID symptoms.
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They, or someone in the household is awaiting test results
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They have had high risk, or close contact, with someone that has tested positive for COVID. High
risk or close contact would be they were closer than 6 feet, for more than 15 minutes without both of them wearing a mask.
Thank you for helping stop the spread of COVID in our communities. If you have any questions you can call me at the district office or your child’s building principal.
Josh Cumpston