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January 4, 2022
Dear Avon Lake Community,
Happy New Year! We are excited to welcome our students back to school today! There are several updates, and changes to processes and procedures, related to COVID-19 we would like to share.
For the last 22 months managing change due to COVID-19 has been a constant factor in our school life. Our goal continues to be to keep our students in school, safely learning. The main factor in our successful continuation of student learning through this crisis has been our ability to work together for the benefit of students, staff, and families. Now more than ever before we need to work together and to stay focused on that goal of staying in school, in person every day to meet the academic as well as social emotional needs of our students.
New ODH Guidelines for Positive Cases and Quarantines
As you may be aware, the ODH recently revised its recommendation for isolation and quarantine guidelines of positive asymptomatic cases from ten (10) days down to five (5) days followed by required mask use for an additional five (5) days. The new flowchart is located on our website here:
School Contact Tracing
Along with these changes comes a recommendation from Lorain County Public Health to suspend contact tracing. Students will no longer be considered “close contacts” and subject to isolation protocols or extended quarantine days through school contacts. They will be made aware of their exposure through email (see below) and will continue to attend school as long as they are symptom-free.
Changes in Communication Regarding Positive Cases/Close Contacts
The district will now provide daily updated information on the Avon Lake City Schools Dashboard regarding the number of positive COVID-19 cases in each building for both students and staff. To streamline communication, we will now only send notifications of positive cases for specific classrooms, buses or extracurricular activities. You will only be notified by email if your child is in the class/bus/activity of a student who tested positive. The “all school” emails will no longer be sent.
As a reminder, your child needs to be symptom-free for 24 hours before returning to school from an illness. If your child is sent home from school during the school day due to a COVID-19-like symptom, please do not send them back to school the following day to help reduce the spread of illnesses.
If there are additional changes to these guidelines, we will notify you as they are adopted. You can always find current COVID-19 information on our district website.
Thank you for your continued support as we continue to navigate the COVID-19 pandemic and its challenges.
Please stay safe and well.
Sincerely,
Bob Scott, Superintendent
Dr. Jack Dibee, Assistant Superintendent
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