Published on Fri., August 27, 2021

Dear LCS Families,

Our priority during this COVID-19 pandemic is to provide excellent educational programs and services in-person five days a week while maintaining high standards for the health and safety of our students and school community. It is important for us all to work together to reduce the exposure level and spread of the COVID-19 virus.

Currently, we have a total of 16 positive COVID-19 cases, all of which are the result of community-based exposures and not the result of in school transmission. This has also resulted in the division having to quarantine 181 individuals per CDC guidelines.

As the cases and quarantines have increased, so have our consultations with the Virginia Department of Health (VDH). In collaboration with VDH, we shifted one school (Linkhorne Elementary) and three classrooms in other schools to remote-only instruction for a short period of time. This was necessary due to the number of positive cases and quarantined individuals, many of which resulted from students who were sick and came to school or students who did not quarantine after a household member tested positive.

Given the increasing number of cases, we are working to further modify our mitigation strategies for common areas in schools such as the cafeteria, auditorium, gym, and outdoor recess area. More information regarding school-specific plans for these areas will be coming out next week.

We ask that our entire school community do their part to assist us in providing in-person instruction five days a week. To help us to continue to mitigate the spread, please follow the following guidelines:

  • If you are eligible to receive the vaccine without any restrictions or complications, we urge you to consider getting vaccinated.
  • If your children ages 12-18 are eligible to receive the vaccine without restrictions or complications, we urge you to consider having your child vaccinated.
  • If your child is sick or showing signs or symptoms of COVID-19, please do not send them to school.
  • If your child has been in contact with someone who has tested positive, please keep them home for 10 days from the last date of direct contact with the person who tested positive.
  • If someone in your household is being evaluated for COVID-19, the rest of the household must be quarantined until an alternative diagnosis is made or negative results are received. Those in the household that have been fully vaccinated do not have to quarantine per CDC guidelines.
  • If someone in your household tests positive, all other family members, who are not fully vaccinated, should separate from the positive household member. If household members are not able to completely separate from the positive individual, additional quarantine time may be required.

Thanks for all that you are doing to keep our students and staff safe.

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