Dear Parents and Guardians,
Starting Monday, December 14th, 2020 the Wautoma Area School District will move to a 4 Day In-Person Teaching and Learning Schedule. Students will attend school on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays.
At this time, students will continue to be at home on Wednesdays as teachers will use this day to plan for the three different instructional models: Students who are only In-Person; Students who are in quarantine status; and for Students who continue to learn and work successfully in the Full-Time Virtual structure; as well as communicate with students and parents as needed. We will continue to examine the Wednesday structure after Christmas Break.
Students who have been successful in the Full-Time Virtual Learning Model will also continue to attend virtually in this format on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday.
Fortunately, we are able to increase our time In-Person because the health and safety metrics associated with analyzing active COVID-19 cases are trending in a downward direction for our community and our school district.
We are also able to make this important move due to the cooperation from a large percentage of our parents and guardians who follow our established COVID-19 safety protocol. These families have been diligent in following these guidelines:
Communicating frequently and clearly with our school office personnel and our school nurse.
Keeping all children home if any family member is experiencing COVID-19 symptoms, and then testing family members to determine their health status before returning to school.
Keeping all children home if any family member tests positive for COVID-19..
Keeping all children home if any family member is testing for COVID-19 and waiting for the results to be returned before the next steps are taken.
Keeping any child home who has been a close contact of a positive COVID-19 case.
It is essential that everyone continue to follow these health and safety guidelines at all times in order to reduce or eliminate the number of active COVID-19 cases coming into the school setting; which, in turn, reduces the number of close contacts and the number of students and staff who need to be quarantined. Our success hinges on everyone following the COVID-19 procedures and processes that have been put in place.
Please note that we will also have a new Close Contact Quarantine Procedure in place:
The U.S. Centers of Disease Control and Prevention released updated guidance on quarantine periods after someone has been identified as a close contact to a positive case of COVID 19. After reviewing the guidance, WASD will be offering a testing approach to return to school earlier during quarantine. Individuals identified as close contacts will be informed of this opportunity by the school nurse and/or school administrators. Specific details will be given during this time, but we will be requiring a negative test result from a specimen obtained on Day 6 or Day 7 of the quarantine period. Anyone identified as a close contact that declines testing during quarantine will be required to follow the 14 day time period established by the school nurse and/or school administrators. These time periods are subject to change with any symptom development.
Our goal is to maintain this schedule from December 14th up to Christmas Break and then continue this schedule after Christmas Break and beyond. However, our opportunity to maintain this schedule is determined by our ability to staff the classrooms, food services, transportation, etc. If the school district is placed in a situation where a critical number of staff members are in quarantine, we may need to pivot back to the Hybrid Schedule as we did on October 12th in order to keep the schools open. As always, we will keep you up to date on these potential situations and work smarter and harder to stay In-Person.
Families will receive updated information regarding meal distribution and minor school bus transportation changes in moving to this schedule.
Sincerely,
Tom Rheinheimer
WASD Administrator