March 29, 2022
Dear Families,
On March 28, 2022 the Indiana Area School District Board of Directors updated the required District Health and Safety Plan. You can visit our website to locate the plan and review it at your leisure. See below for some highlights regarding the changes.
- The District will continue to supply COVID-19 information to the Pennsylvania Department of Health (DOH) as required, but will no longer be able to serve as the lead investigators for contact tracing for the DOH.
- Families should continue to report positive student cases of COVID-19 to the school.
- The District expects that all individuals will communicate with their primary care physician in order to receive medical advice that is specific to their personal health conditions.
- Individuals who are identified by the DOH as close contacts and are asymptomatic will not be required by the District to quarantine as we will continue to implement our previously approved mask to stay procedures.
- While we are required to have a Board-approved plan, we have increased the thresholds to when masking would be required at the substantial plan. Currently, the plan requires us to mask once we reach 10-15 cases at IHS and the Junior High/Ike. At the elementary schools, our current plan requires us to mask once we reach 5-8 cases. The Board has decided to increase these numbers to an infection rate of 2.5% in each school which translates to the following:
- Ben Franklin and East Pike: 12 active cases
- Horace Mann: 5 active cases
- Jr. High/Ike & Sr. High: 25 active cases
- Finally, effective immediately, I will not be issuing a weekly update regarding the number of active cases in the District. Families can visit the COVID-19 dashboard for additional information regarding the number of active cases.
In closing, we are pleased that the cases have subsided significantly over the past several months. Thank you for your continued support, grace, and patience. The past several years have been difficult for so many families for so many different reasons. We are appreciative of all you have done to assist us through these unprecedented times.
Sincerely,
Mr. Michael J. Vuckovich