LM to Follow Updated County Health Guidance

The Linn-Mar Community School District will follow updated guidance from Linn County Public Health (LCPH) regarding close contact recommendations for COVID-19, as recommended by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC).

Transitioning to a district-wide Hybrid Learning Model will help us move forward with this new guidance. It will allow us to better social distance students and staff in our classrooms. We have taken some additional measures to limit potential exposure amongst staff, ie: all meetings must now be virtual, and staff lounges are now closed for lunch and group work. These measures may seem extreme, but we cannot afford to have entire teams or departments quarantined.

With these new guidelines from LCPH, our school quarantine numbers will most likely continue to rise. We want to keep our schools open as long as we can, but we need your help. We can’t ask you to give up all your social gatherings or alter holiday plans, but please continue to make smart, safe choices at home so we can return to fully on-site learning as soon as it is safe to do so. 

• With hybrid learning, the days students are at home will become critical in helping us contain the spread. Please limit social gatherings, among classmates.
• Wear a mask, stay 6 feet apart, and limit interactions with neighbors, friends and non-household family members.
• If your child is showing mild symptoms, please keep them home.
• Remember, we all must make some tough decisions now in order to return to daily in-person learning. When in doubt, don’t go out.

For additional information, please review the updated guidelines listed below from Linn County Public Health.  

Thank you,  Shannon Bisgard, Linn-Mar Superintendent 

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Updated Guidelines from LCPH

Close contact is defined as:

• Being within 6 feet of someone who has COVID-19 for a total of 15 minutes or more in a 24 hour period, starting from 2 days before illness onset or testing.
• Living in the same household as a person diagnosed with COVID-19.
• Direct physical contact with the person (hugged or kissed them)
• Being sneezed, coughed, or somehow got respiratory droplets on you from a COVID-19 infected individual.

Close contact includes all of the above, regardless of mask use.

Close contacts will be expected to quarantine for 14 days after the last exposure. Quarantine is used to keep someone who might have been exposed to COVID-19 away from others. Quarantine helps prevent spread of disease that can occur before a person knows they are sick or if they are infected with the virus without feeling symptoms. People in quarantine should stay home, separate themselves from others, monitor their health, and follow directions from their local health department.

If a close contact develops symptoms of COVID-19, or tests positive for COVID-19, he/she should isolate. Isolation is used to separate someone who is infected with the virus away from others, even in their home. People who are in isolation should stay home until it’s safe for them to be around others. In the home, anyone sick or infected should separate themselves from others by staying in a specific “sick room” or area and using a separate bathroom (if available) until the following criteria is met:  

• No fever for at least 24 hours (without the use of medicine that reduces fevers)

AND

• other symptoms have improved (for example, when cough or shortness of breath have improved)

AND

• at least 10 days have passed since symptoms first appeared

 

For more information, please see the following links:

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/if-you-are-sick/quarantine.html

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/faq.html#Contact-Tracing

 

Thank you for all that you are doing to ensure the health and wellbeing of our community. 

Linn County Public Health