Superintendent Weekly Press Release August 21, 2020
Dear Cedar Bluffs Families,
COVID RISK LEVEL: ORANGE
For the Week of August 21, we remain in the Orange level. The risk dial moved from 2.0 to 2.13 with the biggest mover coming from Dodge County. Again, this is a 3-week average so it will take some time to work its way down if we can continue to be safe by wearing masks and social distancing. If you have been reading the news you will see that the mask mandate by Lincoln over two weeks ago has dramatically reduced cases in Lancaster County. Omaha recently passed a mask mandate, but it will take at least 2 weeks to see its effectiveness. Furthermore, Dr. Brix visited Nebraska and again reiterated that wearing masks is not a political stance but scientifically proven to reduce the spread of the coronavirus.
COVID POSITIVE: 0-Students, 0-Parents/Family Members, 0-Staff, 0-Exposures at School
This week we have had no COVID positive cases reported to us. Again, anyone that has quarantined has done so because they have had a high exposure associated with a family members or coworker that have tested positive. We want to remind all our parents; we NEED your help to keep our school open and our kids healthy. We do not want to risk a massive outbreak where we are required to quarantine an entire class. If your child is experiencing symptoms associated with COVID, keep them home and please inform us of their condition.
Students who are sent home from school because they have a fever or just don’t feel well and have been seen by our health clerk who determined that it is NOT COVID related, still cannot return until they are fever and symptom free for 24 hours without medication. For example, if they go home sick on Monday, the earliest they could return is Wednesday. However, if your child comes to school and we send them home because they are showing two or more symptoms associated with COVID or if they were sent home because of a fever and they return with a fever, they will not be allowed back to school for 10 days. UNLESS you have a doctor’s note or negative test result allowing them back sooner. It will be up to our health clerk to determine if your child needs a doctor’s note or a COVID test to return to school. It will be communicated with you when your child is sent home or when you call your child in absent with symptoms. Please be honest and detailed about your child’s symptoms with our staff. We all want our school open and safe.
We continue to add seating outside for students to eat lunch and space themselves out. The kids have really enjoyed being outside. We have also allowed our high school and middle school students to go outside during passing period to get to other parts of the school. This has helped us with traffic flow, so the secondary students are not cutting through the elementary and cafeteria area where elementary students are to get to other parts of the high school. I have heard the kids say it feels more like a college campus where they go outside to transition to other buildings for their classes.
We have our first volleyball game Monday the 24th, masks will be required for spectators inside our building. Friday is football at Emerson-Hubbard, they are also requiring masks if you are on the home side where the bathrooms and concessions are located.
Homecoming week starts August 31st, our first home football game is that Friday. We will try to keep the week as normal as possible by decorating the halls, having a theme with daily dress up days, a bonfire and possible parade. However, since we really can’t have a dance, we have hired a live band (4 on the Floor) to play music and will have four food trucks serving everything from pizza, phillys and taco’s that students will be able to eat, hang out and listen to music. The event will take place on the practice football field, where we will draw circles putting students into groups of no more than 8 and separated by six feet. Please tell your student to bring a lawn chair or blanket to sit on. Students must pay the $5 fee to come but then can eat all the food they want for free. This event is open to 6th – 12th students since usually we do a junior high dance on Friday and the high school dance on Saturday and will not be able to do so this year. #WildcatPride