Dear Parent or Guardian,
This letter is to inform you about what could happen due to the Coronavirus. We are attempting to make decisions that will be the safest for the students and also try to reduce inconvenience as much as possible. The decision to close rests with the Commissioner of Public Health. There are two scenarios that we could face.
1. The Governor orders all K-12 schools closed but no coronavirus is in Centerburg Schools or Knox County. If this happens, we are not permitted to have any students at school or student activities taking place. All extracurricular, athletic or student programming will be cancelled until we are given permission to once again occupy the schools. We will still have school by using the online processes and we are currently developing plans and procedures that will make that possible. If you do not have internet access, we will ask you to call the school office AT THAT TIME to let us know and we will deliver paper copies of the lessons to your home. We will have Chromebooks available for those who need them. Chromebooks only work wirelessly so you will need WIFI in your home in order to use them. Again, AT THAT TIME, contact us and we will deliver a Chromebook to your home. All of this will begin starting the first day of closure. We will continue to
offer free/reduced lunch meals, delivered to eligible students upon request. Again, we will need you to call if school is closed to let us know you need these meals. The wellness center will be available for paying customers only. No students will be permitted to use the wellness center.
2. The coronavirus is detected in the school or in the county and we are ordered to sanitize the school. If this happens, we will use calamity days to sanitize the school buildings. Once that is done, we will then operate as outlined in number one. We think it will take about 5 days to sanitize the buildings. During that time all parts of the buildings will be off limits. Offices will be closed and only janitorial staff will be permitted in the buildings. The Superintendent’s office and Treasurer’s office will remain open. We cannot offer free/reduced meals until the buildings are sanitized. Closure is controlled by Public Health Officials and not district personnel nor the school board. We will operate as directed by the Office of Public Health. If someone travels to an area that could possibly put them in contact with the virus, we are asking that they not attend school for 14 business days after return. School districts do not have the authority to quarantine someone or forbid them from
attending school. Only the Health Commissioner can quarantine. If we know of someone that has travelled to an area of concern, we will contact the Health Commissioner so they can review the issue and determine if quarantine is warranted. No athletic practices, games or any other student activity will be permitted for the duration of the closure. Only after we are given permission by Public Health Officials will these activities be reinstated. Currently we have cancelled all field trips as a precautionary measure. Spring break will go on as normal so there will be no instruction or meals available.
Please refer to the schools webpage (www.centerburgschools.org) for any updates. If faced with a closure, it may take some time to get things running smoothly but we hope to meet the needs of the students even though we may not be together in our classrooms. Our hope is that we will all remain safe and healthy as our community, state and country face this threat.
Respectfully,
Mike Hebenthal, Superintendent