Haƞ Mitakuyapi,
I am writing to update you on the school’s and community’s preparedness in response to the coronavirus outbreak (COVID-19). To continue our mission at C̣aƞṡayapi Waḳaƞyeża Owayawa Oṭi, we have a goal of continuing to keep our families and staff healthy and able to learn and work.
CWOO will be making the following changes to follow along with the CDC updated guidance on school operations for safe in-person learning. We have updated our COVID-19 Decision Tree based on these updates.
- – CWOO has sent out a letter to inform parents/guardians of students about the COVID-19 vaccine. The COVID vaccines for children as young as 6 months are now available.
- CWOO will review weekly the CDC’s COVID-19 by County Community Level Tracker. There are three level classifications of low, medium, and high. Each level helps convey how much COVID-19 is impacting your community using data on hospitalizations and cases. For low level, CWOO will not require masking, for medium level, masking for people who are immunocompromised or at greater risk for getting COVID-19 is recommended and/or a discussion with your healthcare provider to discuss preventative steps, and finally, for high-level classification, universal masking is recommended. When staff are checking on a sick child, we will wear a mask. All exposed staff are asked to wear a mask for 10 days. Recommend for students who have been exposed to COVID-19 (for ages 2 and up), if unable – rely on the other preventative strategies such as ventilation, cleaning, hand hygiene, and vaccination. Anyone who would prefer to still wear a mask are welcome and will not receive different treatment.
- Quarantine is no longer required. CWOO specific note, if there is a positive in the household, quarantine is recommended for student with testing on day 6. All exposed staff are to wear a mask for 10 days. Recommend for students who have been exposed to COVID-19 to wear a mask (for ages 2 and up), if unable – rely on the other preventative strategies such as ventilation, cleaning, hand hygiene, and vaccination. All exposures are recommended to test on day 6 (CWOO will provide an at-home test or students/staff are able to take a clinic test at the Lower Sioux Health Care Center at 507-697-8600). Families, please discuss with your family advocate.
- Follow CDC guidance at https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/your-health/isolation.html. Isolate from others for 5 days with day 6 release of isolation with wearing a well-fitted mask if improving of symptoms and are fever-free for 24 hours (without the use of fever-reducing medication). With CWOO age range and ability to wear a well-fitted mask, students are most likely to isolate for 10 days with return on day 11. Families, please discuss with your family advocate. Note: Staff will need to consider classroom ability to wear well-fitted mask.
- : CWOO will continue OHS guidance of unvaccinated, exempt staff to test weekly. Vaccinated staff will continue testing bi-weekly. It is recommended if experiencing symptoms noted on the updated COVID-19 Decision Tree, to test. If child is sick, still would recommend to be seen or take a test.
- : CWOO will communicate with the Lower Sioux Health Care Center as our local public health authority on any outbreak situations for shutting down a classroom or school. Note: Classroom closure may still occur if staffing is affected with positive cases (i.e. 2 classroom teachers are out due to being positive for COVID-19 or 3 staff are out due to children having COVID-19).
- : Cohorting is keeping classrooms separate from one another as a mitigation strategy. This is no longer a requirement in operations guidance.
Please let me know if you have any questions by contacting 507-697-8255 or [email protected]. We want to thank you for following all precautions to help promote the health and safety of the children, family, staff, and community.
Pidamayayapi,
Vanessa Goodthunder
Director