At last night’s USD 490 Board of Education meeting, additional COVID-19 mitigation measures were approved in an effort to support student and staff safety and health in our schools.
The first step will be to resume temperature screenings as students, staff, and visitors arrive at USD 490 facilities. The second piece is an implementation of masking criteria that will require masks to be worn by staff and students if an individual school or building has 5% or more of its population who are quarantined or COVID-positive.
We are setting up a COVID-19 dashboard on our website where you can monitor the district percentages and see whether each school is RED (masks required) or GREEN (masks strongly encouraged) for the week. You can also access other important COVID-19 related information on that page such as return options, a self-screening guide, and a PDF of our masking criteria on that page.
A determination will be made and emailed to families by noon each Friday for the following week. The new masking criteria will begin Tuesday, September 21, based upon this Friday’s data.
If a building moves into RED, they will be required to mask for two weeks (the approximate length of a quarantine) and building data will be evaluated each week thereafter to determine when they can move back to GREEN.
Beginning immediately, all visitors to any district buildings and spectators of any indoor events will be required to wear a mask while inside the building.
Masks are required on all district transportation based on current federal mandates and will not be impacted by the district’s masking criteria.
We believe these measures will provide practical mitigation so our students can continue to receive in-person instruction from our phenomenal staff. Your patience and support is truly appreciated as we work to provide a safe and healthy learning environment in an era of ever-changing information and understanding of this pandemic.
If you have any questions, please email covidhelp@eldoradoschools.org and we would be happy to help in any way we can.