Dear Parents, Guardians, Staff, Students, and School Board Members:
At this time, we are extending the indoor mask mandate until further notice.
On December 30th the Maine CDC issued a new Standard Operating Procedure document (set of rules that we are mandated to follow). These new rules eliminate quarantining for close contacts in any school that has a masking mandate. This rule change makes it imperative that we continue to mask in order to keep our close contact students in school. The SOP also reduces the quarantine period down to 5 days for positive cases. Positive cases may return to school after 5 days as long as their symptoms are resolving.
We are still gearing up to implement the POOL testing program that will begin within a couple of weeks. Students and staff that participate in POOL testing also would not have to quarantine if they are a close contact to a positive case. We should know within a few weeks what percentage of students and staff are willing to participate in POOL testing. We believe that these new regulations will help keep more students in school and will eliminate the practice of quarantining otherwise healthy students.
In the last two weeks the local cases of COVID have remained high. The United States is experiencing record high numbers of cases at this time as the more contagious OMNICRON variant continues to spread.
Thank you for your patience, understanding, and cooperation with this difficult situation. If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Sincerely,
Ronald C. Ramsay
Superintendent of Schools
MSAD #37