Thank you for coming together as one team, to make this possible for our students and our families. Also, we would like to extend a special thank you to our teachers and staff, who have continued to come to work each day. Again, this would be impossible without their dedication, professionalism, and resolve.
It is important for us to share that last week, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommended that people should not travel for Thanksgiving and not to spend the holiday with people from outside their household. Locally, the Cook County Department of Public Health (CCDPH) stands with the CDC recommendation on avoiding all non-essential travel. If travel is unavoidable, ALL persons returning from overnight travel outside suburban Cook County should quarantine for 14 days beginning on the following day of their return. This is critically important as we plan to reopen our schools after Thanksgiving and Winter Breaks for our students. For additional information, please view the websites below:
- https://cookcountypublichealth.org/communicable-diseases/covid-19/covid-19-travel-guidance
- https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/travelers/travel-during-covid19.html
We have continued discussing with our District 142 staff whether a pause was needed after Thanksgiving as a safety quarantine period. There is a wide variety of opinions that stretch the gambit, but in the end, we have decided to continue as is with our Phase 3 plan. It is important for families to understand the need for 14 days of quarantine after travel, as well as the need to keep children home if they show any symptoms as referenced on our daily self-certification form. This will help keep staff and students safe, and offer us the best chance to continue keeping our schools open.
The Forest Ridge School District 142 Board of Education has exercised strong leadership through these difficult times, creating and approving a plan that was based on science, focusing on safety for all, and maximizing the educational opportunities for all learners. The safety of the plan has been validated with 15 weeks of successful implementation and no known COVID-19 transmissions in any school building. This is a tremendous feat and would not be possible without the dedication and commitment of our families and our staff members.
As the pandemic continues to test our resolve, we believed this is a good point to reach out and gather feedback from our families. This information will be incredibly valuable as we continue to make decisions moving forward. We also wanted to reach out in support of our families in the event assistance was needed. Thank you for taking the time to answer this Family Feedback Survey.