Good morning Parents and Guardians, 

As we now deal with COVID and the Delta variant strain, I thought it might be a good idea to share a few reminders so that we all stay safe, in school and our children keep learning in school.

1.  If your child feels ill before school and has symptoms of COVID/Delta please do not send him/her to school.  Please let us know that you are keeping your child(ren) home and please place a call to your healthcare provider to see what recommendations he/she might have.  A doctor’s note to return to school helps us with our documentation of health-related issues.

2. We are clearly seeing by the data that this Delta strain is impacting children.  Knowing that, please remember that our population of students are not eligible for vaccinations at this time, so we must continue to do mitigation strategies that we know work: good hygiene, good hand washing, 3 feet of social distancing when and where possible, mask wearing, temperature checks, avoiding contact with those who have tested positive for the virus.  All common sense things that worked in the past and got us through a successful school year, last year.  We need to stay sharp with our health & safety skills.

3.  As we all find a new normal in this pandemic, please remember when you are hosting events (birthday parties, outings, family reunions, etc.) please be mindful of mitigation strategies in those areas as well.  Our goal is for our children to have a normal and consistently healthy lifestyle, all the while making sure that we are protecting our individual students as well as our population of students (staff and families) who are here in our building (and those that we all go home to).  

4.  Please remember that there is no stigma/embarrassment attached to contracting COVID/Delta; anyone can contract this virus.  It is important that we feel comfortable discussing concerns, symptoms and strategies for working to keep us safe.  If you have questions, please remember the CDC sites are updated daily and our School Nurse, Mrs. Urzen, is always available to answer questions or concerns.  She, along with our COVID Team members, has access to our CDC Liaison(s) as well as our School Physician. This is truly a situation where there is no such thing as a silly question.

Lastly, we can do this!   We can keep ourselves safe, engaged and working toward the best opportunities for learning for our students. We know how to win the battle with COVID and now Delta.  We will keep reviewing good practices here at school, you are doing the same at home; we got this!!!

Be well, stay safe, stay informed,
Miss Walsh