
Dear Parent/Guardian,
Please review this letter as it contains several updates surrounding COVID-19 plans and procedures in Leetonia Schools. Over break, Governor DeWine shared updates on the process of quarantines in schools. Based Governor De Wine, the Ohio Department of Education and the Columbiana County Local Health Department, we are now making adjustments to our policies and procedures surrounding COVID-19 precautions and contact tracing.
Based on the guidance received from the Ohio Department of Health on December 30th, 2020 coronavirus.ohio.gov/static/responsible/schools/OSCE evaluation.pdf Leetonia EVSD will no longer be quarantining students or staff from school when they come into close contact with someone with COVID-19 within the classroom setting, as long as facial coverings and/or maximized physical distancing protocols are followed.
There will still be circumstances where students may be exposed to someone with COVID-19 and may be required to quarantine, those areas could include:
- Extra-curriculars (athletics)
- Cafeteria/Lunch
- Band
- Physical Education/Gym Class
Students and staff that come into contact with someone who is positive for COVID-19 outside of the school setting will still fall under the previous quarantine procedures.
Mrs. Stelts (school nurse) will continue to investigate each positive case with both students and staff. Positive
COVID-19 instances will continue to be handled on a case by case basis as its own unique circumstance.
As you will read in the updated guidelines from ODH, this decision was recommended following an evaluation of K-12 school students conducted by the Ohio Schools COVID-19 Evaluation Team. The Columbiana County Health Department supports this and have not had evidence of spread in the school classroom setting in their investigations since we have returned to school. If you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact myself or your child's building principal.
As always, I appreciate your continued efforts to keep our students healthy and safe. I look forward to face-to-face teaching and learning on Tuesday, January 19th. Thanks for all you do!
Dennis J. Dunham
Superintendent