GES : COVID-19 Health And Safety Update

Press release from Gladwyne Elementary School:

2021-12-22

COVID-19 Health and Safety UpdateDec. 22, 2021

Dear LMSD Community,

We know that the rapid spread of the Omicron variant has caused concern among students, staff and families. Despite the recent surge in positive cases of COVID-19 in our school community, LMSD is still experiencing very little in-school transmission. The outbreaks that we have seen are related to participation in activities that we know have increased risk, such as basketball and performances. Overall, our schools are much safer than many other environments, thanks to high vaccination rates in our community, universal masking in schools, diligent reporting of positive cases to the COVID Healthline, robust contact-tracing, our strategic use of rapid testing and our other COVID mitigations.

Because we have confidence in these layers of mitigation, our current plan is to have our schools reopen with fully in-person instruction on January 3, 2022, following Winter Break. We will continue to work with the Montgomery County Office of Public Health (MCOPH) to protect our core educational programs.

But we need your help as well. Please continue to take precautions over break, including masking, distancing and hand-washing. If you or your children have not yet been vaccinated or – if eligible – boosted, please consider getting your shots. Vaccination information is available here.

All of our current mitigation protocols will remain in place at least through January 31, 2022. This includes mandatory masking for everyone in LMSD buildings and on LMSD buses. We will continue to ask everyone to use the screening tool every day before deciding whether to come to school and report any positive cases in your household to the COVID Healthline at 610-645-1973 or healthservices@lmsd.org.

While our plan is return to full in-person instruction after break, we know that COVID-19 makes concrete long-term planning a challenge. We are seeing numerous breakthrough infections in vaccinated individuals. In addition to the threat of the virus, issues such as our ability to test, contact trace and staff our buildings could impact those plans. As a precaution, we are recommending that students take home their devices prior to break, so they have them at home should circumstances change.

Thank you for your ongoing efforts to keep our students, staff and community safe. And best wishes for a happy and HEALTHY new year!

Sincerely,

Khalid N. Mumin, Ed.D.Superintendent of Schools

This press release was produced by Gladwyne Elementary School. The views expressed here are the author’s own.