On Thursday, August 19, Superintendent Michele Starkey provided parents with information about COVID-19 cases in Cass County and quarantining guidelines. Mrs. Starkey's full update can be found below.
Good Evening,
As you may know, the number of new COVID-19 cases are increasing across the state of Indiana. Last week, the Indiana Department of Health reported an average of 1,350 new cases per day and there have been five straight weeks of increases in new cases.
Two weeks ago Cass County was listed as level blue on the Indiana County Metrics Map. Due to the significantly increased number of new cases in the county, last week Cass was moved up two levels on the County Metrics Map and is now listed as level orange and we remain at level Orange this week. That means that there is moderate to high spread in our county.
Our goal is to keep students in school at all levels. Based on what we learned from last school year and by reviewing the data we are going to make the following updates to our contact tracing plan.
Students who are considered a close contact to a positive case at school will not have to be quarantined if they are at least one of the following: fully vaccinated, properly wearing a mask, or have been COVID positive in the last 90 days.
During the 20-21 school year very few students who were quarantined became COVID positive. We believe that this updated guidance on addressing contact tracing will help to keep students in school.
The Corporation strongly encourages having children who are 12 years of age or older be vaccinated.
If there is a symptomatic person in your home waiting on the results of a COVID test, all students in the home need to stay at home until the test results are received. Contact your school's nurse upon receiving results to determine when your child may return to school.
The corporation requests that all students who are exhibiting COVID symptoms, or who do not feel well, stay home from school. Sending children who do not feel well to school could result in a 14-day quarantine when they could have otherwise returned to school in a day or two.
Please contact your school’s nurse if you have any questions.
Sincerely,
Michele Starkey
Superintendent