My student has been told to stay home due to COVID-19. Now what?

Isolation

What does this mean?

Isolation separates sick people with a contagious disease from people who are not sick.

Your student has been diagnosed with COVID-19

OR

Your student is waiting for their test result

OR

Your student has symptoms of COVID-19 but has not been tested or exposed

Isolate your student from others

Contact your student’s healthcare provider to receive further direction and/or consider getting your student tested if you haven’t yet.

Contact the school and let them know

·Stay home until ALL these conditions are met:

1. At least 10 days have passed since your symptoms first appeared.

AND

2. Symptoms have improved.

AND

3. No fever for at least 24 hours without fever reducing medicine.

·Keep your students in a specific “sick room” or area and away from other people or animals, including pets. Use a separate bathroom, if available.

·If your student has symptoms of COVID-19, without a known exposure, and they receive an alternate diagnosis by a healthcare provider and/or their COVID-19 test is negative, you may go back to daily activities 24 hours after student’s fever and other symptoms resolve. Documentation of an alternate diagnosis and/or negative test would need to be provided to the school upon return.

Situation:  Child with 2 low risk symptoms is sent home.  The child goes to get tested.

Do siblings in same house stay home until test results come back on ill child?

NO. THE SIBLINGS DO NOT HAVE TO REMAIN AT HOME UNLESS THEY DEVELOP SYMPTOMS.

Situation:  Child with 2 low risk symptoms is sent home.  The child’s parents choose not to do Covid test and would like to keep the child home for 10 days instead.

Do the siblings in the same house stay home or go to school?

THE SIBLINGS GO TO SCHOOL UNLESS THEY BECOME SYMPTOMATIC.

CONTACT WITH A POSITIVE CASE, BUT NO SYMPTOMS:  If a student/staff is in direct contact with a positive case and the student/staff have no symptoms, then the student/staff must either test or isolate for 14 days.

If the student/staff test positive, then they may return to work/school 10 days after the test date.

If the student/staff test negative, then they may return to work/school after 14 days.

If the staff is an essential worker, then they may return to work if they remain without symptoms and wear a mask.

CONTACT WITH A POSITIVE CASE AND HAS SYMPTOMS: If a student/staff is in direct contact with a positive case and the student/staff develop symptoms, then the student/staff must isolate for 10 days after the start of their symptoms AND be fever free for 24 hours without the use of fever reducing medication (Tylenol, Ibuprofen) with improvement of symptoms before returning to school/work.

NO CONTACT WITH A POSITIVE CASE, BUT HAS SYMPTOMS: Staff/students who have symptoms, but have not been in close contact with a positive case and have a negative result when tested, can return to school/work after 24 hours with no fever (without the use of fever-reducing medication) and symptoms are improved.

My student has been told to stay home due to COVID-19. Now what?

Quarantine

What does this mean?

Quarantine separates people who were exposed to a contagious disease to see if they become sick.

Stay Home and Monitor Your Health

·If possible, keep your student away from others in your house; especially people who are at higher-risk for getting very sick from COVID-19.

·Check your student’s temperature twice a day and watch for symptoms of COVID-19. If your child has any of the following symptoms, that indicates a possible illness that may decrease the student’s ability to learn and also put them at risk for spreading illness to others. Please check your child for these symptoms:

                -Temperature of 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit or higher

                -Sore throat

-New uncontrolled cough that causes difficulty breathing (for students with chronic allergic/asthmatic cough, a change in their cough from baseline)

                -Diarrhea, vomiting, or abdominal pain

                -New onset of severe headache, especially with fever

Use the tool at CDC’s website to track symptoms.

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/downloads/community/schools-childcare/Daily-Home-Screening-for-Students-Checklist-ACTIVE-rev5A.pdf

·If your student develops symptoms during this time:

                1. Call your healthcare provider.

                2. Call your school and school nurse. Your return date may change.

·Keep your student at home for 14 days after the last exposure.

                1. Exposure date is “day zero.”

2. Your student can return to school on “day 15”; this return date may change if your student develops symptoms.

Consider Getting Tested:

·Even if your student has no symptoms, they may carry the virus that causes COVID-19 and pass it to others.

·Wait to get your students tested at least 48 hours after the earliest exposure to the COVID-19 infected person.

·Regardless of the test result, your student has been exposed and still needs to remain quarantined for 14 days.

Can my siblings go to school if I am quarantined?

·As long as siblings have not been in close contact with someone positive for COVID-19 and they remain with NO symptoms, they can come to school.

Parents,

Are you struggling to help your student access and use Google Classroom?  

Click the following 2 links to view presentations designed to answer your questions. 

Feel free to reach out to your child's teacher(s) through email also.  (first.last@pekincsd.org)

We are here to help in any way we can.  We want to make learning accessible to all students,

and together we can have a successful school year.

Pekin Schools 

2020 Parents Guide to Google Classroom

Google Classroom for Students

PEKIN COMMUNITY SCHOOLS

1062 Birch Ave., Packwood, IA 52580

CREATING LEADERS OF TOMORROW, TODAY

Mr. Dave Harper, Superintendent                                                                         Central Office phone: 319-695-3039 x-203

Mrs. Kim Ledger, Elementary Principal                                                                         Elementary phone:      319-695-3707 x-101

                                                         Mr. Andrew Koshatka, Secondary Principal                                                               High School phone:  319-695-3705 x-208                                                          

                                                                                                                                                                                                        Middle School phone:  319-695-3707 x-150                                                                  

                                                                                                                              Fax:   319-695-5130 or 641-661-2351            

Communication Update - 9-12-2020

Families,

We have made it through our third week of school. Hooah! We have encountered some speed bumps along the way, but we have managed them. We have had several positive cases at the secondary level this last week that resulted in us needing to cancel some activities. These cases resulted in us sending about 50 students home due to contact tracing. This does not mean the 50 students were positive by no means. What it means is those students were within a 6-foot circle for more than 15 continuous minutes (Close Contact). They have been exposed to someone who was confirmed to be positive for COVID. These students will rejoin us next week and they will resume their face to face instruction.

One thing that became apparent out of all this is the need to ensure we are maintaining our social distancing and avoid if all possible close contact with others outside of our family pod. We will no doubtingly have some additional cases in the future but we will continue to handle them and we will be in contact with County Health on each positive case.

To remind everyone we continue to require staff to wear masks or shields in the building when they cannot social distance from others. We are highly encouraging students to wear masks on the bus and when they cannot social distance from others also. This is going to take a community effort and I know we can tackle it.

If you have questions, please feel free to reach out to me at 641-224-2524.

We Got This.

Dave

Pekin Schools Spectator Guidelines For Home Events 

The following guidelines have been developed to provide a safe environment for all players and those in attendance.  We ask that all spectators, students and players observe these guidelines when in attendance.  JH volleyball games will all be played in the High School gym. We will re-evaluate towards the end of the fall sports season to discuss our action plan for our winter sports layout.

For home football games

1. If you feel sick, STAY HOME!  This goes for students, spectators and players. 

2. If you have been in contact with anyone that has a confirmed Covid-19 diagnosis within the past 14 days.  STAY HOME!!

3. The bleachers are available for use.  We ask that you stay within your family pod and practice social distancing.  You will also accept personal responsibility for the public health guidelines. 

4. Essential personnel only are allowed on the sidelines and in the press box.  

5. A reminder players are bringing their own water to games. 

6. Masks will be optional by the spectators, players and coaches.

7. Fans may bring lawn chairs and/or blankets to sit on.

8. At the start and through the contest all K-6 students should be with their parents. Students should not be running around the parking areas, under the bleachers or on the visiting side of the field.  They are there to watch the game. 

For home volleyball, basketball and wrestling

1. If you feel sick, STAY HOME!  This goes for students, spectators and players. 

2. If you have been in contact with anyone that has a confirmed Covid-19 diagnosis within the past 14 days.  STAY HOME!!

3. The bleachers will be available for use.  The first two rows will be marked off and not for seating around the gym.  The only front rows that are open are for the teams and the Southeast Corner bleachers (first two rows) for Senior Citizens only. At this time, every other row will be masked off to help with social distancing.   

4. Essential personnel only are allowed on the bench or near the court or mat and near players.

5. Players and fans are encouraged to bring their own hand sanitizer but we will have some in the high school commons.

6. Students are only allowed to leave the gym at game breaks.  NO students are allowed to play or linger in the commons or hallways. K-6 students should be with their parents. 

7. Masks are strongly recommended but are optional for players, coaches and fans.  

8. Students should treat visitors, teams, officials, adults and other students with respect.  

***All protocols above are subject to change based on state guidance and county health guidance.

The document below provides an overview of some of the important safety measure we will be taking at the secondary level this school year. Highlights from this document were briefly shared last night during orientation/open house.

Please note that face masks will be required in our Food and Nutrition classes as well as Band and Chorus.

We are looking forward to Tuesday!

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1my_A0ZxiDqsq6GLJYazmJ-5hWFPdXhd0JuP4zMQIYFc/edit?usp=sharing