Dr. Theroux- Mask Update
January 5, 2022
Dear Talawanda Students, Parents, & Staff,
COVID-19 continues to spread across the world, nation, state, and in our own community. It is important that we do all we can to keep COVID-19 out of our schools. Our goal is to keep our schools open to in-person learning, but we need your help in order to keep our schools open.
The Butler County Health Department (BCHD) Commissioner, Dr. Erik Balster, has strongly recommended all individuals (even vaccinated) to wear masks. BCHD also recommended all individuals to become fully vaccinated (including Booster shots to those eligible individuals).
Talawanda School District will lift the mask mandate on Monday, January 10, 2022. Like BCHD, we strongly recommend all individuals wear a mask and become fully vaccinated (including Boosters to those eligible).
Please note we will follow any ordinances, legal requirements, or BCHD orders so decisions may change throughout the year. We will absolutely notify you of any changes as we learn them from health officials.
The quarantine and isolation orders from BCHD have also changed. The CDC, ODH, and BCHD continue to monitor the COVID-19 issues and make adjustments to the procedures and orders. We will continue to work with the BCHD as we have done.
I believe it is imperative to work together so our schools will stay open to in-person learning. We need our families to follow all of the orders set by BCHD. We also need families to keep students home who are ill. Giving medications such as aspirin or ibuprofen to mask symptoms and sending the student to school will jeopardize us keeping our buildings open. Contact the school nurse or administrators and let them know of the child’s illness, positive cases of COVID19 by anyone living in the home, any orders provided to the family, and any suspected case of COVID19 at home. Again, please keep your child home. Our nurses and administrators will work with BCHD to provide you with additional instructions and orders. This will help keep COVID19 out of our buildings and classrooms. This will help keep us open to in-person learning.
We have a staffing shortage. We have talked about the staffing shortages. We cannot keep our buildings and classrooms open to in-person learning if we do not have the staff to operate the buildings. Again, it is imperative to keep COVID19 out of our schools not only for our students, but also our staff. Our staff have also been advised to stay home, contact us, and follow the same protocols found in this letter. We do not want to move back to remote learning. We want our schools to stay open to in-person learning AND need ALL to work together to achieve this goal.
To recap, the mask mandate at Talawanda School District will be lifted on Monday, January 10, 2022. Individuals do not need to wear a mask on Monday. We, I, strongly recommend individuals to become fully vaccinated and wear masks. If your child is ill, keep your child home and contact the school nurse or administrators for next steps. Keep COVID19 out of our buildings. I may change this dropping of the mask if COVID19 spreads in our schools or we have too many students and staff absent causing us not to be able to operate our classrooms, grade levels, buildings, and district. We also will follow all legal requirements and ordinances if those were to change.
For additional information related to COVID19 and our procedures, go to our website www.talawanda.org . Click on COVID19 tab. We will update our procedures and plan as changes and decisions are made.
Thank you for your partnership in helping us keep our schools open to in-person learning. We will get through this together.
In Education,
Dr. Edward Theroux
Talawanda Superintendent
