Happy Friday Lawton Dolphins!
This week we had a chance to welcome our kindergarten students to campus this week. Students and teachers are thoughtfully creating class charters, continuing community building, and learning all within our new normal.
HEALTH AND SAFETY INFORMATION
The health and safety of our entire community is important. We’ve had confirmed COVID cases in three classrooms since the start of school.
It takes all of us working together to keep learning safe and joyful. The rest of this newsletter is dedicated to safety reminders, sharing information about how COVID is handled at school, and identifying things you can do to help keep students safe outside of school hours.
Consistent with Department of Health guidelines for safe schools at Lawton we:
- Physical distancing in the classrooms and common spaces
- Frequent hand washing and hand sanitizing
- Masking at all times except while eating
- Eating outdoors with assigned seating
Here are some things we encourage you to do to help reduce COVID exposure in our community:
- Stay vigilant for signs of COVID infection and keep your student home if they have symptoms.
- Get tested if you’re experiencing symptoms or know you’ve been exposed to someone with COVID-19. Click HERE for a list of King County Testing locations.
- Contact the school immediately if your student tests positive for COVID.
- Send your child to school with a few clean and well-fitted masks each day.
- Make sure your student wears a mask when gathered with people outside your family, including on playdates.
- Keep gatherings small and outdoors or indoors with the windows open.
- Continue to avoid non-essential travel. If you travel, get tested for COVID-19 before and after traveling and quarantine for seven days after traveling.
What happens when a person at Lawton has COVID?
We work with the Seattle Public Schools COVID Central team to trace and contact individuals who came in close contact with the infected person and instruct them to follow Public Health quarantine guidelines. Families of students in classrooms with a confirmed covid case will receive email notification. Students determined to have had close contact receive a phone call.
Who needs to quarantine?
The Seattle Public Schools COVID Central team will identify and notify individuals who came in close contact with an infected person and advise them to follow Public Health guidelines to quarantine for the entire 14 days from the date of exposure to the person with COVID-19. If you are not told you are a close contact, you do not need to quarantine.
What counts as close contact?
In general, a close contact is anyone who was within 6 feet of a person with COVID-19 for at least 15 minutes or more during a 24-hour period during the time when the person with COVID-19 was infectious. However, in a K-12 indoor classroom the close contact definition excludes students who were at least 3 feet away from the infected student when both students were wearing a face covering and other prevention strategies were in place. The definition of a close contact may vary in some situations with the ultimate determination of a close contact being made by the COVID Central team in partnership with Public Health.
What does learning look like if my student is quarantined?
We are working to get all our devices distributed as quickly as possible. If your student is quarantined, your teacher will provide a learning packet or online learning materials.
PTA BACK TO SCHOOL BASH CANCELLED
Due to the recent COVID-19 cases in our community, the PTA board has made the difficult decision to cancel the Back to School Bash scheduled for this evening. We realize this will be a disappointment for many of you, and we apologize for the short notice. We hope to gather as a community as soon as it is safe to do so.
UPCOMING EVENTS
September 10 – PTA’s Back to School Bash CANCELLED
September 21 – Curriculum Connections
September 23 & 24 – School Picture Days
October 1 –Tie-Dye Spirit Day
October 8 – No School, In-Service Day
