Dear WCCS Community,
I do hope that you had a wonderful Thanksgiving that allowed you and your family the opportunity to truly thank God for the long list of blessings He has provided including people, places, and things. Like I expect was true for many of you, the Dillon home celebrated differently this year. We did our best to be together… virtually. And, from start to finish, we longed for the opportunity to REALLY be together again soon.
I had the opportunity to speak to a fellow Christian school administrator over the break and we recalled a conversation we had in August that noted that it would take an outpouring of great blessings from God for us to make it through the first quarter of the school year without closing classes, grades, or schools due to Covid-19. He reminded me that we agreed that we would almost need to use the word, "miracle," if we made it to Thanksgiving. Now, with cases continuing to rise nationwide following Thanksgiving, we are praying that we make it to Christmas - and beyond!
I can tell you that we have had a second high school student test positive this week (with the first HS student testing positive over Labor Day). We continue to follow CDC and SCDHEC guidelines for positive cases and close contacts, which means that the student who tested positive is home under isolation and a number of students who were close contacts have been moved temporarily to remote learning. There are also multiple students who are learning remotely this week due to becoming close contacts to positive cases outside of school or for those who traveled internationally over Thanksgiving and are quarantining as per CDC recommendations.
I have mentioned CDC guidelines a couple times intentionally, as these are changing as well. As of TODAY, most news outlets are reporting that the CDC is adjusting their quarantine recommendations, particularly as we head into the Christmas season where holiday travel is more common. The NEW guidelines say that close contacts should quarantine for TEN days without a Covid-19 test or for SEVEN days with a NEGATIVE Covid-19 test (when tested day FIVE or later). This is shortened from the previous expectation of FOURTEEN days with or without a test. This information is so new that it is not yet updated on the CDC/SCDHEC websites. As we have done before, it is our plan to follow the official guidelines, knowing that they are a moving target. We will link these updates on the COVID UPDATES section of the WCCS website as they become available. Until then, I would ask for your support as we seek to care well for the students, faculty, staff, and entire WCCS community.
