Our School Info

Dear Employees,

Perrysburg Schools follows the guidance of the Wood County Health Department and Ohio Department of Health for decisions on isolation/quarantine in relation to COVID-19 exposure.Guidance released this week designed to allow for as much in school learning as possible outlines alternatives to at home quarantines as detailed below. These changes, combined with a decline in community spread over the past two weeks, will also move the school district from requiring facial coverings to strongly recommending facial coverings for all students, employees and visitors indoors on school property. If we begin to see spread of COVID-19 within the schools, we will revisit these recommendations. This message will also be sent to families at 5 p.m. today.

These changes are effective tomorrow, Wednesday, October 27, 2021. Please note this change does not impact the federal transportation policy that still requires face coverings for all while on school district transportation. This change applies to school exposure only. Those currently in quarantine will receive a separate letter with instructions for return if the new guidance applies to their situation. Details provided by the Ohio Department of Health are summarized in the following.

Mask to Stay/Test to Play Option

Quarantining students at home who have been exposed to COVID-19 in a school environment has the unintended consequence of reducing in-school learning and can be an added strain on parents, schools, and local health departments (LHDs). While vaccination and mask usage are critical components to ensuring a safe school environment, we offer an in-school alternative to quarantining students and school staff at home who have been exposed to COVID-19 in a school environment to support in-school learning and reduce the strain.

This recommendation is informed by a growing body of national experience, a pilot program in Warren County, Ohio, and experience shared by other LHDs that points toward a low number of individuals with direct contact to a COVID-19 positive individual within a school setting who convert to positive cases. Based on this information and the success of the Warren County pilot program, we recommend the following for K-12 students and staff exposed to COVID-19 in a school setting.

Please note: Eligibility to participate in mask to stay/test to play is contingent on the exposure being in the school setting or school-related activities. This does not apply to household exposures or exposures outside of the school setting or school-related activities.

Mask to Stay

Direct contacts, regardless of vaccination or masking status, may remain in the classroom environment if they do the following:

• Wear a mask for 14 days after their last date of exposure.
• Self-monitor, or parent-monitor, for symptoms of COVID-19 (https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/symptoms-testing/symptoms.html).
• Isolate and get tested if they start to experience symptoms associated with COVID-19 (regardless of level of severity).
• Consistent with guidance for others quarantining in lower-risk environments, students and staff may discontinue these quarantine procedures after seven days if they test negative for COVID between days 5-7 and remain symptom-free.

Direct contacts for COVID-19 are those individuals who are identified as being directly exposed to COVID-19 by the positive case. Remember, COVID-19 is a respiratory virus and does not require physical contact to spread. It is spread through sneezing, coughing, talking, and breathing. These factors should be considered when determining level of exposure and direct contacts. Best practice for distancing is 3 ft with everyone masked, 6 ft if the individual is not masked.

Parents and students are responsible for symptom monitoring; however, if nurses/school staff see a child exhibiting symptoms they should act accordingly. [Perrysburg Schools’ screening protocol may be accessed here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1kI55Hq4g8NCsAN_rB-WkMgb4TEgYkFt29l1QL3i7Wd0/edit?usp=sharing]

Test to Play

Asymptomatic contacts may continue to participate in extracurricular activities if they do the following:

• Wear a mask when able. (This includes: transportation; locker rooms; sitting/standing on the sidelines; pre-practice/event; post-practice/event; and anytime the mask will not interfere with breathing, the activity, or create a safety hazard.)
• Test on initial notification of exposure to COVID-19. [If they are negative at this time, they may return to play.]
• Test again on days 5-7. If they are negative at this time, they will test out of quarantine.

Please Note: The tests referenced above are SARS-CoV-2 viral (PCR or antigen) tests. They should be proctored/observed by a trained professional and cannot be an over the counter, at-home test that was self-administered without a proctor.

A few reminders:

• Families and employees are asked to continue to report any diagnosis of COVID-19 and contact with individuals who are positive by emailingcovidsupport@perrysburgschools.net.
• To help streamline the contact tracing process as much as possible, we continue to encourage families and employees to submit student/employee vaccination information to the school district by emailing an image of the immunization card tocovidsupport@perrysburgschools.net.
• Students or employees may request a school district-provided KN95 mask using the following link:https://forms.gle/zEvs5zYKA4iokzgM8
• We strongly recommend facial coverings be worn by employees and students.

Throughout the pandemic, we have been aligned with the Wood County Health Department, and they announced yesterday that they are going with this model. Our goal has always been to take steps to reduce quarantines and this update allows more students to remain in class. Thank you for your continued patience and understanding.

Peace,

Tom H.