Parents and Guardians, 11-24-20

We look forward to seeing your student again Monday, Nov. 30th. I wanted to share ways you too can support the schools. I’ve often said the school is the hub of the community. We take pride in knowing Switzerland County School Corporation is a true reflection of our community. We know this is also the case during a COVID pandemic. Our goal is to remain in session throughout the school year. As most of you know, the community spread increased to a point we had more students coming to school positive in a week than we had throughout the entire year to this point. This is due to community spread on the rise. Our E-Learning efforts were to assist in reducing the community spread.

We truly believe school is one of the safest places to be during this pandemic. Students and adults wear a mask, wash hands hourly, have access to hand sanitizer in each classroom and common areas throughout the school. Knowing this, I’ve received questions on when school may close in the future. It’s not a question of when, it’s a question of why schools would close. 

If we cannot staff our buildings due to teacher absences, we would be required to go E-Learning to allow time for teachers to return. Not being able to  properly staff our cafeterias, our custodians, or our bus drivers would be another reason we may need an E-Learning temporary break. Also, if we find our contact tracing leads to spread within the school or if too many students come to school sick and may spread COVID to our students, faculty or staff causing us to be understaffed in any of those areas or above 20% quarantined. The final reason would be a county or statewide closure to slow community spread.  This recent E-Learning break was in an effort to reduce community spread and slow the number of students coming into the building who test positive. 

There are ways the community can help us remain in session throughout the school year. Sign up to sub in any or all of the areas listed above, if you can sub in a classroom, sub in the cafeteria, sub as a custodian, or a bus driver you can help keep our school in session as long as possible. Simply call 812-427-2611 for more information on how to sub.

The second way is to ensure you keep your child home if they are showing any signs of COVID-19, these can be very mild signs, even what can sometimes be mistaken as allergies. Use extreme caution and only allow your child to return when they are symptom free. This will greatly reduce the possibility of school spread among other students who may go back to their family and  may have high risk individuals in their family.

We know the struggles families experience when it comes to school work at home. This is obviously more than review at this point. It’s new material for students making it even more difficult to practice or advance in their lessons at home. We as educators believe the best learning takes place between a teacher and student in a face to face setting. Please help us make that possible by signing up to sub, keeping children home who show symptoms, washing hands at home, masking up and social distancing when possible, and also limiting social gatherings, this includes family and friends from outside your home. We are in this together and as the school that is the hub of our community, we want to do our part in helping you but we need your help to be successful in this community effort. Thank you for all your support throughout this process. We know it isn’t easy but it is necessary. Thank you again and we look forward to seeing your student on Nov. 30th. Have a Happy Thanksgiving.

Mr. Rod Hite, Superintendent

Switzerland County School Corporation