The County numbers continue to decline with only 7 active cases at the moment. That is our lowest total in several months so we are grateful for that. We do have 3 positive students cases at the moment, zero staff, and a total of 4 students who are quarantined. We will continue with the same tiers we have been in the last several weeks, with Tier 1.0 at the elementary schools and Tier 1.5 at the JH/HS.
A couple of thoughts on the JH-HS. There are a couple of reasons why we continue to require mask at that level. As long as the quarantine requirement continues to be that if two individuals are in a mask and if one test positives for COVID-19 it doesn't impact the other, it is hard for us not to be in Mask. Those students move around so much during the day and interact with so many other staff and students, that if we aren't in a mask and if a student or staff would test positive then we would have many students quarantined for that one positive result; similar to the situation we had in the 2nd quarter of this school year. Also, the data would continue to support that the transmission rate among that age group is a lot different than it is with our elementary age students. Our elementary students don't move from class to class during the day, like our JH-HS students and our self-contained in their individual classrooms. Our teachers do a great job keeping those students 6 feet apart for the most part. Although we can do a good job of social distancing at the JH-HS level it is more difficult to maintain 6 feet in certain classes.
We will continue to monitor the situation and try to make the best decisions we can to support the safety and health of our students and staff. If you have any questions please feel free to contact me directly at 785-890-2397 or bill.biermann@usd352.org