At the Regular Meeting of the School District of Bloomer School Board, held on September 20, 2021, the School Board adopted “COVID-19 Precaution Decision Rules”. These decision rules indicate and provide clarity for when the District will put additional COVID-19 precautions into place based on the current number of School District of Bloomer students who are quarantined or isolated due to COVID-19.
The adopted decision rules indicate that when the District will have 40 or fewer students or staff quarantined or isolated, we will continue to operate in the manner we have thus far this year. If we have between 41 (approximately 2.5%) and 140 (approximately 10%) students or staff in quarantine or isolation, we will move to Level 2 and masks will be required in most indoor locations. If we have more than 140 students and staff in quarantine or isolation, we will move to Level 3 and additional precautions will be put in place. These precautions include limiting visitors, limiting field trips and reducing interaction between cohorts of students.
The district’s quarantine and isolation list will be reviewed either Thursday afternoon or Friday morning of each week to determine the number of students and staff that we know will be in quarantine or isolation to begin the following week. Parents will receive an email each week notifying them of the current level and any changes in precautions for the following week.
The full “COVID-19 Precaution Decision Rules” document can be found at https://5il.co/zd2a.
While we are cognizant of and understand the issues, both for and against, the wearing of masks in school settings, our top priorities are the safety of our students and continuing to provide a wide-variety of educational opportunities. The wearing of masks has been show the slow the spread of the virus and reduces the distance for close contacts from within six feet to within three feet of a confirmed positive individual, thus greatly reducing the number of students who would need to quarantine. It is our hope that by following these decisions, we will be able to avoid a serious outbreak which would require more restrictive precautions and could result in the closure of schools.
As a reminder, we ask that you please screen your children for symptoms of COVID-19 prior to sending them to school. If your child is exhibiting COVID-19 related symptoms, please keep them home from school and contact your health care provider to determine next steps. A list of COVID-19 related symptoms can be found at here.
As always I would like to thank you for your patience, understanding and support as we continue to navigate this unprecedented situation. Resources related to COVID-19 can be found below.
Regards,
Brian Misfeldt
Chippewa County Department of Public Health COVID-19 Testing
Chippewa Count Department of Public Health Coronavirus Response Page