NISD Families and Staff Members – I was truly hoping to get more days behind us before sending you this specific update, but as we discussed this summer, the possibility is real this year that we will have to temporarily close classrooms, programs, and/or teams because of too many positive cases of COVID. Today that became a reality. Two sets of NISD families and staff members received notice that we are closing their classroom at J.C. Thompson Elementary and at Peterson Elementary due to COVID. I realize that unexpected closures will be a burden on families – and for that I apologize, but it is a necessary step in preventing the spread of COVID.

I have been hoping and praying that we would not reach this point, but unfortunately here we are. We had a cluster of several positive cases within these classes, leading to the decision to close them for several days, depending on the onset of symptoms from the most recently confirmed case. As you may recall in our Health and Safety Protocols, we will begin evaluating the need to close a cohort (classroom, program, club, etc.) based on three or more linked cases – and that is what happened in these situations.

The number of positive cases in our district has been increasing (by about 50 cases) since the first day of school, and now – only seven days into our school year – we are rapidly nearing our highest case count recorded last school year. Additional classrooms in other schools are also being evaluated for possible COVID clusters, so more classrooms could be closed if cases continue to increase.

Please, please, please remind your child of the importance of continuing healthy practices. I highly encourage students and staff to wear a mask and to be vaccinated (if eligible). Please also be overly cautious in keeping your child home from school if they are not feeling well. Our school health clinics can also provide a rapid COVID test with parent permission, and we encourage you to use that option if you are ever in question about your child’s health.

As a district, we will be reviewing our current Health and Safety Protocols with all staff members. We will also (as a district) be reviewing the protocols themselves in relation to the rising number of positive COVID cases to possibly consider future recommendations to our NISD School Board members to strengthen those protocols. Admittedly, we ended last year’s school year with the hope that our COVID challenges were largely behind us, but unfortunately as our numbers show, they are not. While our cleaning protocols continued, my hope is that you will see a renewed effort to increase social distancing and to exercise more caution and preventative steps in our classrooms and schools as we deal with this challenge.

Moving forward, please familiarize yourself with our protocols for closure (a summary of our protocols is below) and prepare your family in the event of a 10 calendar day school / class/ program closure. Also keep in mind that positive cases on bus routes are being evaluated and a bus route could potentially be closed as well.

Please help us in doing what we can to keep our students, staff, and school safe and healthy. I am still determined that this will be the best year yet, but we will need everyone’s help to deal with our COVID challenge.