Today, September 22, 2020, our district was notified that one staff member in the La Grande School District has been diagnosed with COVID-19. As members of the school community, we understand this might raise concerns, alongside a caring response. We are working closely with Center for Human Development (CHD) to respond to this news and protect the health of our community. The impacted location is Central Elementary; the staff member has not been in their school location since Friday. LGSD will be deep cleaning the staff member’s location and the working areas they have utilized, along with the common work areas utilized by Central Elementary staff.
Our district will also continue our daily practice of sanitizing and disinfecting high touch surfaces at all locations. This will happen even more often (two to three occasions per day) as we have more staff and students in our buildings.
Each situation calls for different protocols. In this case, we implemented the following steps:
1. Informed the school staff in the impacted building
2. Communicated with the staff members determined to be close contacts and/or secondary close
contacts and provided support to the best of our ability
3. Coordinated contact tracing with CHD
4. Deep cleaned all impacted work areas
At this time, our school district will not be closing any buildings. Why: In order for us to move forward as a school district with students and staff in our buildings, our reality is we will likely need to shut down class cohorts, close and sanitize classroom locations, etc. Our district will follow our Ready School Safe Learners guidance, the state and county metric tool, as well as work with local health officials if we decide to close down a school building. This will be a reality for our school district as we open up and have more staff and students in our buildings.
As a reminder: The best way to prevent the spread of COVID-19 is through wearing face coverings, physical distancing and practicing good health hygiene habits. Be sure to wash your hands frequently with soap and water, cover your coughs and sneezes, and avoid contact with people who have signs of illness. Get plenty of rest, exercise, and eat a healthy diet.
We can all protect the community by following the safety practices listed above, as well as by following the governor’s orders as it relates to stay home, stay safe. We must all reduce the spread of the virus and help prevent those who have the virus, but do not have symptoms, from passing it to others.
LGSD will keep you updated with any new information as it comes out, while meeting the requirements to honor the privacy rights of our staff members and students.
More information may be found on the Oregon Department of Education’s Ready Schools, Safe Learners page, the Oregon Health Authority’s COVID-19 page and our Path to Reopening website at lagrandesd.org.
Sincerely,
George Mendoza,
Superintendent