Important Announcement-Mask Mandate Change
posted September 4, 2020
September 4th, 2020
Dear Parents and Guardians,
This communication is to inform you of changes that will be effective September 8th, 2020 regarding facial coverings and our new online illness dashboard.
On September 3rd, the school board met in a special meeting to determine next steps for mitigation regarding COVID-19. The school board voted unanimously to require facial coverings for all students and staff in every building, effective September 8th. This vote was following the recommendation of Wapello County Public Health and Wapello County Emergency Management.
This decision was based on the number one premise of keeping students at school. We have seen what is happening in other communities, and the purpose of this measure is to be proactive before the virus hits Cardinal, as we know it will eventually. By requiring facial coverings, we hope to lower the amount of students and staff that may be required to quarantine or ultimately contract the virus. Facial coverings help reduce the amount of viral load that is released. We have been fortunate enough to have no confirmed student cases or staff cases through Sept. 4th. We are thankful to our parents and staff for all the mitigation measures that have been implemented so far.
We will work with students in transitioning through this change, as we know this will be a shift from how we started school. We will have masks available if your student forgets to bring their own, but we encourage you to find several comfortable masks for your student. We also encourage you to launder your child’s facial covering daily. Having several masks to rotate through will be beneficial in ensuring cleanliness.
Public health has emphasized the concern with rising cases 3-4 weeks following the Labor Day holiday. We encourage you to continue to help Cardinal Schools remain open by reminding you to keep social distancing, follow CDC guidelines on handwashing, and wear facial coverings when you attend gatherings outside of your immediate family.
In addition, the district has created a dashboard on our website to keep you informed of positive cases, numbers of quarantined individuals, and overall illness percentages. This will be updated daily by 4:00 PM. You can find this at the homepage at www.cardinalcomet.com.
We appreciate you partnering with us to continue to provide on-site instruction to our students. We will continue to communicate all updates to our parents regularly. Please email any questions to questions@cardinalcomet.com
Sincerely,
Joel Pedersen
