Superintendent Weekly Press Release October 22, 2020

Superintendent Weekly Press Release October 22, 2020

Dear Cedar Bluffs Families,

 

COVID RISK LEVEL: YELLOW

For the Week of October 26th, the COVID risk dial is Yellow moving from 1.63 to 1.88. Saunders and Washington County both moved from 1.75 to 1.88 while Dodge county remained at 1.75.

TOTAL POSITIVE: 2-Students, 11-Parent(s)/Family Members, 4-Staff

THIS WEEK: 12- Quarantined/Isolated, 6-Positive

This week we learned of our first positive cases within our school, two secondary students and four staff members test positive. This is not surprising considering the State of Nebraska as you can see from this chart. 

These are daily positive cases in Nebraska with the highest number recorded this week since the pandemic began. All of the children in a classroom of a positive staff person is considered “low risk” exposed and will receive a letter by email or mail from Three Rivers Health asking those parents to self-monitor their child(ren) for the next 14 days but they may continue to attend school. Once we get a positive case, we have a verification process followed by a contact trace where we have to identify every person that was in contact with that positive person from the previous 48 hours. We have to determine if they were a “close contact” and need quarantined or just a “low risk” exposure because they were in the same room. With six cases coming throughout this week, that took us a great deal of time to gather and verify information, work through schedules and then work with Three Rivers Health to distribute letters. If you are like our staff, they wanted to know immediately when it happened and who exactly is positive. I have to remind them of HIPPA laws and tell them we are working through the process as quickly as we can plus things were changing daily and hourly, so we wanted all the information to be accurate. If Three Rivers deemed the school to be the source of the spread, immediate action would have been taken. Two of the positive staff members work in the secondary building, one works at the district level and has very little contact with students while the fourth positive staff member works primarily with elementary students. All positive cases are in isolation, family members and close contacts associated with the positive cases are in quarantine and areas where the staff member worked have been sanitized thoroughly.

Also, over the weekend we were informed that a parent of two other secondary students tested positive. Both students were tested this week and results were negative, although they continue to quarantine.  Three other staff members who had symptoms this week did get tested and results were negative. We are also waiting on results from two other students, one in the elementary and one in the secondary who went home sick this week. However, we also have had several students home this week with strep throat and a staff member who had stomach flu as it is that time of year.  #WildcatPride