Dear MTSD families,

Yesterday's Washington Post included an article that suggested parents in our area were sending their children to school after they had tested positive for COVID-19. The article ran with a photo of Homestead High School and a misleading caption that implicated our district.

It is important to note, however, that the article itself did not mention our district. In fact, the concerns from our health department have been directed to other districts under the department's purview. Our executive communications director has successfully reached out to the newspaper and the photo of Homestead with the corresponding caption were removed this morning.

Contrary to the Washington Post photo and caption, we are grateful for the improved community burden in our district and we would like to thank community members for their continued support in driving the spread of COVID-19 down. We believe that as long as we continue to follow mitigation procedures and enact social distancing as outlined by the health department, we will stay within the parameters necessary to continue offering on-campus instruction for those families that chose it.

The safety and wellbeing of our students and staff remain our highest priority. As this situation remains fluid, we urge you to continue to visit our resource hub for accurate and up to date information related to our responsible return, our mitigation procedures, and more.

In the meantime, thank you, once again, for your efforts in support of our schools, our students, and our staff members.

Sincerely,

Matt Joynt

Superintendent of MTSD