Hello Lutherville Families,

We have enjoyed our final week before break! I've been impressed with how our students have been able to focus and continue their learning in balance with the excitement of the season in the air!

With the surge in COVID cases being experienced in our community, this is a time for us to all work together and communicate for everyone's safety and learning.

If your child is diagnosed with COVID, please email your child's teacher and/or Nurse Vita (svita@bcps.org) to alert them as soon as possible. This allows us to commence contact tracing in partnership with the Balt. Co. Health Department to alert other families as well as reach out with academic supports and tutoring opportunities. See more information below.

Good news to share from BCPS is: "Although the number of cases in schools is high and will likely rise in upcoming weeks, there has not been any change in the rate of transmission at school. Through Friday, December 10, 98.6% of persons identified as a close contact to a person with COVID at school DO NOT develop COVID in the 14 days after exposure. Keep up the good work of masking!"

As you have seen in system communications, the priority of Baltimore County Public Schools is to preserve and protect 5 day in-person learning. However, in the event that our local and/or state government directs us to shift to virtual instruction, student schedules and directions for accessing Google Meet will be posted to your child's homeroom teacher's Schoology page.

In preparing for the possibility of such an event, some grade levels and teachers have sent home additional supplementary materials. Please hold those materials until after break. They will either be used to support virtual instruction or need to come back to school in January.

On Monday, BCPS shared a system message regarding extra-curricular activities -- paused through January 7th, including backpack club -- in which they noted we can expect an update regarding January reopening on Thursday, December 30th.

Please know that we are making plans, to the extent possible given what we know (which is all shared in this newsletter), to support your children in whatever way is deemed safe and possible by the school system and our health official partners.

In partnership,

-Mr. McComb

The information below is being reshared from a system message sent Monday, 12/20/21.

Students who are diagnosed with COVID and/or have had close contact with a person with COVID should follow these guidelines:

Persons diagnosed with COVID over the winter break should follow their healthcare providers' guidance about when they may return to work and school.

• Students diagnosed with COVID over the winter break who will be absent on January 3 should email their teacher and/or school nurse.
• School nurses will return on Monday, January 3 and will contact students absent due to COVID infection to provide support and return-to-school guidance.

Persons with close contact with a person with COVID over the winter break should follow Baltimore County Department of Health guidelines about return to work or school. Unvaccinated persons should remain home for 10 days after their last close contact to the person. Vaccinated persons may return to work or school as long as they do not have symptoms.

• Unvaccinated students with close contact who will not be able to return on January 3 should report their COVID exposure to their teacher or school nurse.
• School nurses will return on Monday, January 3 and will contact students absent due to COVID to provide support and return-to-school guidance.

Staff and students who are traveling internationally over the winter break are encouraged to follow CDC guidelines for testing and quarantine for travelers to the places they visit. CDC guidelines can be found at this website.

This is a repost of a system message sent on Monday, 12/20/21. Please note, this change puts the onus on families to notify the school if the Health Department has excluded your child. Please do so to insure the safety of others and prompt us to provide you with academic supports and tutoring if excluded.

In light of the recent COVID-19 surge across the county and continued data that indicates that COVID-19 transmission in schools is rare, BCPS has collaborated with the Baltimore County Department of Health (BCDH) to update its COVID-19 case response process. BCPS appreciates the Department of Health's partnership and its willingness to take on an increased role in COVID-19 case response for BCPS. Once a student case is reported to a BCPS school nurse, the nurse will identify possible close contacts and share those with the BCDH who will lead the process for notifying all close contacts. Parents of students who are placed in quarantine by the county health department are asked to notify their school nurse. Schools will continue to send a daily community notice when a person has been at a school while potentially contagious.

As we continue to see an uptick in COVID cases, we want to continue to provide updated vaccination information. In addition and by consequence of the benefits of improved response to the virus, students who are close contacts and are vaccinated and not experiencing symptoms have been able to return to school.

If your child has lost an article of clothing or water bottle -- it may have been found. And it could be waiting for them in our Lost & Found in the cafeteria. Please encourage them to check this when they come to lunch or encourage them to work with their teacher to come and check.

Please find previous Lab Reports via the following links:

December: 3rd, 10th, 17th

November: 5th, 12th, 19th

October: 1st, 8th, 15th, 22nd, 29th

September: 24th, 17th, 10th, 3rd

August: 27th, 20th, 13th, 6th

July: 30th

Email: smccomb@bcps.org
Website: https://luthervillees.bcps.org/
Location: 1700 York Road, Lutherville-Timonium, MD, USA
Phone: 410-887-7800
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/category/Local-Business/Lutherville-Lab-Elementary-School-578308486196045/
Twitter: @LuthervilleLab