Ray-Pec Community,
In a couple of days, we will begin the second half of the 21-22 school year. I trust you and your family are having a wonderful winter break. We have great things to look forward to over the next several months, and future editions of the Message From Mike will highlight those.
However, as we prepare to start in-person school operations again, I want to address the current pandemic and seek your continued assistance in navigating our challenges.
Your Assistance Is Greatly Needed
It is important that we remain vigilant for symptoms of COVID-19. If your child has a fever, fatigue, muscle aches, loss of taste or smell, or any other symptom listed here, please keep her/him at home. This is critical to help reduce the risk of COVID-19 spread in our classrooms. Face coverings continue to be highly recommended by all when physical distancing cannot be achieved. Additionally, I encourage you to talk to your healthcare provider about vaccinations to see if they are right for your child.
Our Challenge Is Real
Area physicians and public health experts are warning about the uncertainty over the next several months with respect to the virus. Already some services and events across the country have been canceled or delayed due to the recent uptick in cases. Our number one priority is to keep students and staff healthy and for schools to remain open. Our critical component in being able to accomplish that will be the availability of teachers, support staff, transportation staff, and others needed to maintain school operations. We all need to take the appropriate actions to help mitigate the spread of the virus.
While our priority is to keep schools open, there is the possibility that due to staff illness and lack of available substitute teachers and critical staff, we may be forced into choices about closing a classroom or facilities for a temporary period of time. I assure you that this is our very last choice to deal with the issue before us, and we will do everything in our power to prevent closures from being necessary. However, our challenge in the coming weeks is real. I do not write this to alarm you, but to be fully transparent about this potential situation and to ask you to think about a personal contingency plan should a temporary closure become necessary.
Our Continued COVID-19 Transparency
We made the commitment since the beginning of this pandemic to share with our parent and staff communities information of each positive COVID-19 case among students and staff within 24 hours of the District’s director of human resources being notified by the Cass County Health Department (CCHD). If you would like to be on the notification list for this information, please register here if you have not done so already. Additionally, the daily number of new positive cases of COVID-19 can be found on our website dashboard.
Current Isolation and Quarantine Procedures
Any student or staff with a positive case of COVID-19 will be expected to stay at home, per our Board policy for all communicable diseases. Any student or staff who has been exposed to a positive case of COVID-19 will not be required by the Cass County Health Department (CCHD) to quarantine based on exposure alone. Anyone exhibiting symptoms of COVID-19 should stay at home and seek advice from their family physician. We will continue to contact and trace every positive COVID-19 case that we are able to and will inform as many parents/guardians of students as possible to let them know that there may be potential exposure to COVID-19.
Assuming our supply of rapid COVID-19 tests remains available, we will continue to offer such tests for students and staff who have been exposed to COVID-19 and who want to know if they are positive for the virus.
I have always been frank and honest with my assessments of the situations in which we find ourselves. This is yet another challenging time. We will continue to meet this challenge to the best of our ability and keep you fully informed along the way.
Thank you for entrusting your children to the Ray-Pec School District.
Mike Slagle
