August 5, 2021
Face Mask Requirements
Dear Orange Schools Families,

We hope you have been able to enjoy the summer break, and we look forward to having our students back on campus later this month. Due to the recent increase in the spread of COVID-19, the Orange City School District will begin the 2021-2022 school year with a face mask requirement for all students, staff and visitors when indoors, regardless of vaccination status. Masking will not be required outdoors, including when students are at recess. This mask mandate will go into effect on Monday, August 9, 2021. 

We are aware of the points of view of both opponents and proponents of masking this fall. However, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the Cuyahoga County Board of Health (CCBH), our local public health authority, recommend following the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidance which is largely based on the COVID-19 Delta variant’s higher rate of spread among both vaccinated individuals and children. Therefore, masking indoors is an effort to safely maintain as much full-time in-person learning as possible and to avoid time out of school due to quarantine for students and staff. Building-wide masking greatly reduces the likelihood of quarantine based on current ODH quarantine guidance linked here.

Masking, in conjunction with vaccination and other strategies listed below, will help keep our kids and staff safe in school. To that end, we encourage all eligible staff, students and community members to get the COVID-19 vaccine as soon as possible.
Start of School COVID-19 Mitigation Strategies
The following mitigation strategies will be implemented to start school in the fall of 2021. It is important to note that these strategies are being implemented in a way to maintain as much full-time in-person learning as possible, while being cognizant of vaccination efforts of students, families and the community at large.

  1. Masks required on buses for ALL, including the driver unless driving without passengers
  2. Masks required* indoors for ALL students, staff, visitors and sports spectators
  3. Masks not required outdoors, including recess, for students, staff and sports spectators
  4. Continue bus seating and cleaning procedures, spacing as much as possible
  5. Contact tracing and reporting will continue
  6. Following the ODH Isolation and Quarantine Guidance **
  7. Continue use of REME-Halo (UV lighting and ionization)
  8. Table dividers in the MHS and Brady cafeterias
  9. Water fountains are off-limits (water bottles and use of filling stations permitted)
  10. Distancing - as much distancing as possible in classroom seating arrangements, limiting close activities and avoiding physical contact
  11. Hand sanitizing is expected in each classroom and at lunch
  12. Continue custodial routines, ongoing wipedown of high contact surfaces
  13. Test kits being provided, to minimize time lost to quarantine

*This will be reevaluated in October. It is recommended to continue with layered mitigation strategies and to remove them in layers, not all at once. Classroom student desk shields are the first layer being removed along with reinstating the use of lockers

**There is no recommendation to quarantine non-symptomatic close contacts who have had COVID-19 within the past 90 days from the exposure (per CDC). Likewise, fully vaccinated non-symptomatic close contacts will not be quarantined. This will be re-evaluated in October in light of evolving legislation and guidance from public health agencies
Dr. Lynn Campbell, Superintendent