As of 03/31/22
A Message from the district nurse
Since updated Department of Health guidance no longer requires contact tracing, we will send out a letter via email when students shared a space with someone who is Covid positive and may have been exposed. This will in most cases be a classroom space. See the link for an example of the notification letter: Exposure Notification Letter
As of 03/09/2022
A Message from the Superintendent
The Washington State Department of Health (DOH) and the Office of the Superintendent of Public instruction (OSPI) released new guidance yesterday. These new requirements, procedures, and recommendations get us one step closer to having school look like it did two years ago in March of 2020 (before the pandemic started). We are really excited about these changes and looking forward to school looking as close to normal as it has been in a long time.
As we had learned previously, masks are optional beginning March 12. Masks are still required in our health rooms and in our COVID isolation rooms. Additionally, if we were to see an increase in cases or an outbreak, the health department may require a school or district to wear masks again for a short period of time. Outside of that, families and students may choose whether to wear a mask or not. Decisions whether to wear a mask or not wear a mask will be honored and respected in our district. Any harassment, intimidation, or bullying of any individual's further decision to wear a mask or not will not be tolerated.
The Dieringer School District is committed to maintaining a safe learning environment. Individuals who test positive for COVID are still not allowed in school buildings. Staff and students who test positive may return after 5 full days of isolation if their symptoms have improved or they are asymptomatic, and they are without a fever for the past 24 hours without the use of fever-reducing medications. A person returning to school after day 5 is required to test negative with an antigen or at-home test any day after day 5 to return on days 6-10.
If an individual is not able to wear a well-fitted mask or face shield and does not test negative, they need to continue isolating through day 10.
Contact tracing is ending. We will continue to report on the number of cases in our schools through the dashboard on our website and will also include information in our newsletters going forward. Staff or students who have been exposed to someone who is COVID positive can continue to come to school if they are asymptomatic and can participate in Test-to-Stay if needed. We will also offer testing of symptomatic students to help get students who are COVID negative back into school sooner; COVID positive students and staff will follow our current isolation protocols.
Many of the other COVID mitigation strategies we have in place will continue in one form or another - as many of those practices are now recommended as additional measures to keep everyone as safe as possible. Physical distancing is not required under the new guidance but we will still keep students separated to the degree possible. As we refine our processes and protocols more information will be sent to families from our nurse Terry Woodall or our building COVID officers.
Thank you again for your patience and understanding these two years as we've shifted and adjusted with the changing conditions of the pandemic. We are looking forward to seeing everyone on Monday masked or unmasked when all these change will be in effect. We are also looking forward to school in a more normal state going into the spring.
Michael Farmer
Superintendent
