September 1, 2021
With the spread of the Delta variant, the number of positive COVID cases and exposures resulting in the quarantine of students has continued to trend upward. The numbers have now increased over last year. This has caused us to make a difficult decision. We will be mandating students and staff to wear masks effective tomorrow, Thursday, September 2, 2021. The mandate will be in place for all of our buildings, all school transportation and during any indoor school activity for ALL preschool through 12th grade students and staff.
We realize there is conflicting information regarding mask wearing, but we are making this decision based on our own school data. We know from the data that quarantines from last school year were lower when students and staff were wearing masks. This indicates that reinstating our mask policy should result in fewer quarantines and enable us to keep students and staff in school. We will continue to monitor the numbers of quarantines in our schools as well as guidelines from local, state and federal health agencies as we move forward into the school year.
Our guidelines, as well as those from the Ohio Department of Health, outline how wearing a mask can prevent quarantines from school. You may connect to West Carrollton School District COVID-19 Guidelines 2021-2022 for more information including how, why and when students are quarantined. Our guidelines are consistent with Ohio Department of Health K-12 Quarantine Guidelines.
It is imperative students be kept home if not feeling well and that the school be informed. Please do not send your child to school if he or she has been exposed to COVID outside of school and notify the school. That would include not participating in sports or any other extracurricular activity. Students who have tested positive should NOT come to school or participate in any sport or extracurricular activity.
Students will get mask breaks throughout the day and will not be required to wear a mask outside as long as they are following appropriate social distancing measures. We will be continuing to deep clean throughout the day, providing hand sanitizer, teaching proper hand washing techniques and encouraging social distancing whenever possible.
We will be continuing to evaluate our mask wearing policy during the coming weeks and will keep you informed of any changes.
Dr. Andrea Townsend