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STARFIRE STRONG COVID RELATED UPDATE
August 25, 2021
Recently, the Superintendents of the School Corporations in Adams County, received an update from the Adams County Health Department regarding the surge of COVID-19 cases in Adams County. This update shared that we have had an increase in the number of COVID cases involving children. The Delta variant of COVID-19 is highly contagious, easily transmissible and is affecting children far more so and far more seriously than earlier strains of COVID-19. I am enclosing the letter received from the Adams County Health Department. As you can see the Health Department is deeply concerned about the health and safety of students and the impact of either contracting the virus or being exposed to it. It is the primary job of the SA School Board and myself, to keep our entire South Adams School family safe, and we are also very concerned.
While we are being urged to require masks to be worn, we are doing our best to balance the rights of parents and families to decide what is best for their child with what is best for all students who attend South Adams. It is not our desire to mandate masks. However, we are asking our families to please consider voluntarily complying with the recommendations of our local health department, the State Health Department and the CDC and have your child wear a mask to school. We cannot emphasize enough how important this is for us to do all we can to keep our entire SA family safe. Without the cooperation of parents and families, there is a serious risk that more students will be exposed and possibly contract the virus, as well as potentially causing more students to be considered close contacts and having to be sent home to quarantine. (Masks help prevent students from being considered close contacts.) As a result of this we could be forced to again resort to e-learning and cancelling all extracurricular activities, and NO ONE wants this!
We will continue to work with our state and local health officials to monitor the spread of the virus in our own area. If the transmission rates and number of cases declines then we will be able to lessen our restrictions. However, if the transmission rate continues to increase in Adams County, we will have to consider taking additional steps to protect the health and safety of our entire school family.
Thank you so much for your constant support and cooperation. It is my desire and that of the SA School Board, that our children and our entire school family stay safe and healthy and have the opportunity to enjoy all the benefits of in-person learning every single day. I have said it before but it is so worth saying again. We could not have gotten through the past 18 months without the incredible support of our families and community. THANK YOU!!!
We will get through this because together we are STARFIRE STRONG!!!!
Please download and read the following letter from the Adams County Health Department.
