September 28th, 2020
Dear Parents and/or Guardians:
This letter is to notify you that a student or a staff member from both Parkside School and Wautoma High School has tested positive for COVID-19. We have worked with the Waushara County Health Department to properly identify, notify, and quarantine for 14 days any students or staff who may have been in close contact with the positive case.
As COVID-19 continues to spread, we encourage everyone throughout the school district to monitor for symptom development especially over the next 14 days. We strongly encourage testing as symptoms are noted. If you were contacted by the Waushara County Health Department staff please assist them as they work to investigate and control COVID-19 in our school district. If your child had close contact with a person with COVID-19, you will receive instructions about monitoring symptoms, testing, and how to keep others in your home from getting sick.
All Wautoma Area School District Schools will be in session on Monday, September 28th for all other students and staff not contacted by the Waushara County Health Department and/or the Wautoma Area School District. The Wautoma Area School District will not release Personally Identifiable Information in these cases as all necessary families and staff members have been contacted in person.
COVID-19 is caused by a new Coronavirus that was first identified in late 2019. It is spread from person to person through droplets produced by coughing and sneezing. It causes mild symptoms in most people but in some it can cause more severe illness. COVID-19 can cause a variety of symptoms. Some COVID-19 symptoms can seem like a common cold, others are more severe. Some people have no symptoms that develop but are carriers of the virus. Symptoms to watch for are cough, shortness of breath or difficulty breathing, fever (100 degrees or greater), vomiting, diarrhea, congestion or runny nose, chills, sore throat, muscle or body aches, headache, new loss of taste or smell, fatigue.
The following guidelines will help to prevent further spread of illness at our school:
- Stay home from school if you are ill
- Encouraged good habits: frequent handwashing, hand sanitizer use, covering coughs and sneezes, use of facial coverings, physical distancing
- Notify the school if your child is diagnosed with COVID-19
- Notify the school if your child had close contact with someone diagnosed with COVID-19
Again, a public health official or a school official has contacted all confirmed close contacts of this case.
Tom Rheinheimer - Wautoma Area School District Administrator
Cari Pronschinske - Wautoma Area School District School Nurse