BCISD cleaning campuses over break, taking other steps
As Burnet school district students and staff prepare for Spring Break, district officials are monitoring the COVID-19 outbreak and taking steps to slow the spread of the virus.
In a letter to Burnet Consolidated Independent School District families, staff, and residents, Superintendent Keith McBurnett stated the district is in regular contact with Burnet County Emergency Management as well as state health officials regarding the novel coronavirus.
Over BCISD’s Spring Break, which is Monday-Friday, March 16-20, the district will deep clean its buildings and facilities in line with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommendations for schools.
The district, according to McBurnett, is also revamping its attendance policy on determining perfect attendance awards and final exam exemptions. To encourage parents to keep their children home if they are ill, the district will not use absences after March 9 to determine awards and exam exemptions.
If a student must be self-quarantined, those days will be excused absences.
Also in the letter, McBurnett asked families and faculty to consider the CDC’s travel recommendations. The CDC outlined recommendations for several countries, including China, Iran, Italy, and South Korea, where COVID-19 is widespread. It has additional precautions for Japan and Hong Kong.
McBurnett also pointed out the CDC’s suggestions for people traveling within the United States:
You should consider:
- the level of community spread of COVID-19 at your destination;
- what kind of contact with others you will encounter on your trip;
- whether you are in a high-risk category for becoming seriously ill;
- whether you have a plan in place to be absent from work or school for 14 days (period of self-quarantine) after returning home;
- and whether you could unknowingly carry the virus home to older or health-impaired relatives or friends.
If a BCISD student does travel to a high-risk country, or has plans to, McBurnett asked that their parents contact their campus as soon as possible. The student should also self-quarantine for the recommended 14 days after returning.
“All members of our community can partner with us through personal responsibility to help stop the spread of this infectious disease,” McBurnett stated in the letter. “The COVID-19 situation and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Warning Level Advisories can change quickly, and we well continue to assess the impacts on domestic travel on a frequent basis. As of today (March 12), we plan to reopen the district following Spring Break as scheduled on March 23, 2020.”
If things change, the district will notify staff and families by March 20.
For more information on BCISD’s novel coronavirus response, visit the district’s COVID-19 webpage. Other sources for information on COVID-19 include the Texas Department of State Health Services and CDC.