January 10, 2022
Dear Families,
In alignment with our approved Health and Safety Plan, universal masking will be required at the Indiana Area Junior High/Eisenhower, Horace Mann Elementary School, and East Pike Elementary School starting on Tuesday, January 11th through Friday, January 14th. This decision comes as a result of the schools reaching the number of positive COVID-19 cases that placed the buildings in either the “substantial” or “high” categories as identified in our Health and Safety Plan. We will continue to monitor the number of cases and will communicate accordingly if we need to go beyond the five-day window as previously described above or if a temporary closure is necessary.
According to our plan, staff and students will be required to wear their masks regardless of their vaccination status. The only individuals who are precluded from this expectation are those who previously submitted medical excuses.
Please understand that this decision was not made lightly. We are facing multiple challenges at the current time, and our ability to remain open for in-person learning is at stake as well as the ability to maintain extracurricular programming. We hoped that we would never reach this point, but we have and now must respond by following our approved plan.
To be clear, at this point, there are no plans to close any of our buildings to in-person learning. Should a closure become necessary, our students will receive their instruction synchronously from their teachers and more information would follow at that point. Although we are not there yet, families are encouraged to remind their children to continue to take home their Chromebooks in order to be prepared for a temporary closure of the Junior High School if one would become necessary. Eisenhower, Horace Mann, and East Pike would communicate directly with families on how Chromebook pick up will be addressed in a future correspondence in the event of a closure.
As a gentle reminder, we have testing abilities established in each school if you are interested in accessing this service. As of Friday, January 7th, we have administered nearly 200 tests for our staff and students across the District. These tests have also assisted us in keeping our schools open and minimizing the number of quarantines for asymptomatic students.
As always, I invite you to please visit our COVID dashboard at www.iasd.cc for up-to-date information relating to the number of positive cases and quarantines in the District. Additionally, you will find a copy of all the letters we have sent throughout the year on this page as well as some additional resources and information from the Department of Health and/or Department of Education.
Respectfully,
Mr. Michael J. Vuckovich
IASD Superintendent