Press Release:
October 28th 2020
The Muscatine Community School District has been committed to being transparent with regards to communicating about COVID-19 cases. Starting this afternoon, updates will be available to you 24/7 via the ‘COVID-19 Dashboard’ found on our ‘Return to Learn’ website or by clicking here. Due to the increased number of positive cases in Muscatine County, we strongly feel this approach is best moving forward. Thus, we will no longer be continuing to send out building wide communication each time a positive case is reported.
What will not change is our current method of communicating if your student was possibly exposed to an individual who tested positive for COVID-19. Should that happen you will receive a phone call from your school’s nurse with that notification and steps to take. Our principals will also continue to communicate positive cases to the staff in their buildings.
It is important to note (as stated on the ‘Return to Learn’ website) that school will continue to be remain in-person until “there is a 15-20% positivity rate in a county on average over the past 14 days AND 10% absenteeism among students, districts can request approval from the Iowa Department of Education to close a school building or a district for up to 14 days.”
Please also note that currently, buildings that are at the (or above the) 10% absenteeism rate those numbers include students who are quaratining that are expected to be back in-person within the next few days. Lastly, it is important to remind you that in order to ever have a school building go virtual a request has to be made to the Iowa Department of Education and it is not guaranteed that they would approve such a request.
Muscatine Community School District will continue to monitor new cases of COVID-19, the 14 day positivity rate and absenteeism rate(s) in our buildings and provide that information via the ‘Return to Learn’ website. In addition, we will continue to reinforce the COVID-19 guidelines previously put in place that include; requiring face coverings when social distancing is not possible. Along with our nightly cleaning protocols of all classrooms and high touch areas while also encouraging thorough hand washing to help stop the spread of this communicable disease.
Once again we thank you for your patience and trust as we continue to navigate these challenging times together. Our ultimate goal is to remain transparent and honest with our communication with all of you while also protecting the privacy of the individuals.
Sincerely,
Muscatine Community School District Admin Team
This story originally appeared on the Voice of Muscatine. Read More local stories here.
Be the first to comment