Greenwood Elementary School staff member diagnosed with COVID
By Paul Hall on Monday, February 1st, 2021 in More Top Stories Northeastern Oregon News
LA GRANDE – (Information provided by the La Grande School District) On January 28, 2021, our district was notified a staff member in the La Grande School District has been diagnosed with COVID-19. As members of the school community, we understand that this might raise concerns alongside a caring response. We are working closely with the Center for Human Development (CHD) to respond to this news and protect the health of our community. The impacted location is Greenwood Elementary.
Our district has already deep cleaned the staff member’s work locations and all common work areas that have been utilized by the staff member. In addition, the confirmed employee has not been in our buildings since Wednesday, January 27. Our district will also continue our daily practice of sanitizing and disinfecting high touch surfaces at all locations.
Each situation calls for different protocols. In this case, we implemented the following steps:
1. Informed school staff from buildings impacted.
2. Coordinated contact tracing, interviews and notification with our school nurses and CHD.
3. Deep cleaned all work areas impacted.
At this time, our school district will not be closing any classroom/s or the school building. Why: In order for us to move forward as a school district with students and staff in our buildings, our reality is that we will consider each situation on a case-by-case basis. If the situation or situations dictate, we will be prepared to sanitize and disinfect as appropriate, isolate, quarantine, and close classrooms, cohorts, locations, etc.
Our district will continue to follow our Ready School Safe Learners guidance, review our advisory state and county metric tools, district COVID data, and work with local health officials if we decide to close down a school building. This will be a reality for our school district as we seek to remain open and have more staff and students in our buildings.
As a reminder: The best way to prevent the spread of COVID-19 is through wearing face coverings, physical distancing and practicing good health hygiene habits. Please stay home if you are sick and ensure your loved ones do the same. Be sure to wash your hands frequently with soap and water, cover your coughs and sneezes, and avoid contact with people who have signs of illness. Get plenty of rest, exercise, and eat a healthy diet.
We can all protect the community by following the safety practices listed above. We must all reduce the spread of virus and help prevent those who have the virus (but do not have symptoms) from passing it to others.
LGSD will keep you updated with any new information as it comes out, while meeting the requirements to honor the right to privacy of each of our staff members and students. More information can be found on the Oregon Department of Education’s Ready Schools, Safe Learners page, the Oregon Health Authority’s COVID-19 page and our Covid Response page on our website.
