LCPS staff member tests positive; PreK goes all remote

This afternoon we were informed a Lamar County Primary School staff member tested positive for COVID-19. The staff member was in attendance today, August 25th. Per our policy, the staff member will be quarantined. Through our contract tracing protocol, we identified 11 additional staff members and 10 students who meet the “exposed” criteria. All parents of the quarantined students have been notified. Classrooms have been disinfected. Once again, our school nurse, administration, and staff acted quickly to address this issue according to our established guidelines. We are thankful we were able to eliminate bus exposure by quickly identifying students before dismissal. All quarantined individuals are reported to DPH daily. Per our policy, we have notified all staff members at the school as well as the parents of students in the classroom who did not meet the “exposure” criteria. Due to the extensive number of PreK staff members quarantined, ALL PreK students will immediately transition to remote learning for the next 14 days. This applies to PreK students only. No impact to grades K-2.The Lamar County School System is committed to transparency as we work through the challenges of COVID-19. While we are limited with details we are permitted to share due to confidentiality guidelines, we will submit a statement each time we are faced with a positive case in our school system and will also share the number of students and staff quarantined from each new occurrence. Parents and guardians of exposed students will be notified before any release of information. Staff members are subject to the same exposure guidelines and will be quarantined accordingly.