Governor’s Orders on Sharing Positive COVID-19 Cases

Dr. Amy Crouse, Superintendent, Loveland City School District (Provided)

On September 4, Governor Mike DeWine issued an order on COVID data reporting and notification protocols for K-12 schools. This order is effective September 8, 2020. In response to this order, the district will be posting a COVID-19 dashboard on our website that will include the number of new positive cases each week in our schools.

The district tracker does not reflect cases that happen outside of LCSD, at home, or in the community. Based on our experiences with COVID-19 cases on athletic teams that occurred before school started, we have been able to further adjust mitigation efforts (masking, distancing, hand sanitizing, and cleaning) to prevent any additional exposure. Additionally, these same mitigation efforts, coupled with the blended model we have implemented PK-12, will limit exposures in school.

When the District is informed of a positive case, the building administrator for the school or team/program with the positive student will take the following steps:

  • Gather facts of the case, including the identifying information of those students and staff who have had close contact with the case (within 6 feet for 15 minutes or more).

  • Notify the LCSD health services team of the positive case.

  • Work with the health service team and Hamilton County Public Health to notify those parents and students identified as being close contacts.

  • Once all students and families are contacted, all District families and staff will be notified of any positive case via email.

In addition, every Friday the COVID dashboard will be updated with the number of new cases and close contacts being isolated or quarantined for that week. This dashboard will be posted on the district website at www.lovelandschools.org.

For the first week of school from August 31-September 4, there have been zero positive cases or close contacts in Loveland Schools. No staff or students were isolated or quarantined due to COVID at school.

KEEPING OUR TIGERS HEALTHY 

Keeping Our Tigers Healthy

Thank you to our parents for all the work you have done at home to prepare your children for this school year. Our Tigers have come to school ready to learn and have handled wearing face masks, keeping their distance, and washing and sanitizing their hands remarkably well. We need to remain vigilant to keep our staff and students healthy so we can have the opportunity to return to a full-day in-person learning model.

Reinforcing these key practices will give us the best chance to stay healthy and in school:

● Distance- 3 ft gives protection (everyone masked), 6 ft twice as much

which will prevent the need to be quarantined

● Masking- everyone wears a mask (cleaned daily) at all times with mask

breaks

● Handwashing- soap and water for 20 seconds or hand sanitizers that have

at least 60% alcohol (check FDA website for recalls)

LJB, our pandemic preparedness consultants, did a walk through this week while school was in session. Their team was very complimentary about how our health and safety protocols were being implemented and provided suggestions for continued improvements.

“We are so happy to have our Tigers in the building and pleased that we completed week one successfully. We will continue to react and respond to changing health guidelines and the Governor’s orders. We are truly in this together,” Loveland Superintendent Dr. Amy Crouse shared.

District to Survey Parents, Students, and Staff to Gauge Reopening Plan

As part of our continuous improvement for our reopening plan, the district will be sending out surveys to our parents/guardians to gauge their perceptions on instruction, health and safety, and student schedules. The district will send out the first parent survey on September 11.

“I have had the opportunity to visit classrooms both online and in-person this week and am so pleased with all the wonderful teaching and learning I have seen. We will continue to focus on improving the learning experiences with the challenges faced with online learning and our blended model. I have great faith in our Loveland teachers and appreciate the dedication, passion, and creativity that they are bringing to our students each day,” said Dr. Crouse.

Our leadership team is also looking for more specific parent feedback on the same topics at the building level. Our schools will begin sending out these building-levels surveys on September 18. In the meantime, please contact your child’s teacher or principal with specific questions or concerns.

The district will be posting a COVID-19 dashboard on our website that will include the perception data received from parents/guardians, students, and teachers/staff through our bi-weekly surveys. The data will be used to monitor our progress in teaching and learning, health and safety protocols, and the effectiveness of student schedules whether in person or online. This feedback will give us the opportunity to identify and target areas that need improvement.