School Operations Update

 Lewis County Metrics

Currently, Lewis County has a case rate of 325/100,000 people. By comparison, the State is at 213. 25 is the target for acceptable case rates. (San Francisco County had a case rate of 16 this week and only 2 new cases.) In Toledo School District, we had no confirmed cases associated with our schools from March 29 through May 6. In the past two weeks, we have had 13 positive cases and a number of close contacts that were required to quarantine. This is a troubling trend. Other districts in Lewis County recently returned to remote-only instruction due to an increase in cases in their schools. If we are to be successful at remaining open in regular order, we need to utilize all the measures available to us.

The measures that we use to combat the virus are masking, distancing, hand hygiene and now, vaccinations. The COVID vaccines that are now available are more effective than the Measels vaccine at preventing or mitigating disease and are the only thing that can be used to combat the need to quarantine. In addition, being vaccinated reduces the need to wear masks and distance. Vaccines  limit the long term effects of COVID on respiratory and circulatory systems. 

We are encouraging all of our employees to get vaccinated. In addition, we're encouraging parents of children 12-17 to have their children vaccinated. Children who have been vaccinated are less likely to contract the disease and can be exempt from quarantining if they have no symptoms. The District is currently working to arrange for a vaccine clinic at TES in the near future. More people vaccinated means fewer  people to contract and spread the disease.

2021-22 Operations

We are planning to return to school in-person, Monday-Friday during regular hours next year. Other than Cowlitz Prairie Academy, we are not planning to offer remote instruction to students. We are anticipating the need to continue to mask until regulatory agencies such as Labor and Industries indicates that we are not required to do so. As we have throughout the pandemic, we will aggressively offer in-person instruction unless a change is indicated otherwise. We ask our community to support us in this effort.