According to Crossroads Today, VISD Superintendent, Quentin Shepherd stated a staff member from O'Connor Elementary notified her campus principal she tested positive for COVID-19 on Tuesday, September 15th.

As protocol requires, the campus nurse called the Victoria County Health Department to notify them of the tracing results. Results determined from this process indicated that a total of 42 students and 4 staff members would be required to quarantine at home for a minimum of 14 days. 

Shawna Currie, Director of Communications for VISD, offers, “Because COVID is in our community, we expected to have cases reported when students and staff returned to campus. None of the current cases were contracted through contact on campus. Our main priority is to ensure we continue following the protocols in place to mitigate spread within our school communities.”

Parents of students across VISD are asked to 'self-screen' their children prior to their entrance into any campus daily.

VISD teachers are asked to self-screen as well.

COVID is difficult to navigate through, as there is no specific, consistent, set of symptoms that indicate a positive or negative result. While it's difficult to ensure the accuracy of the self-screening process, continued implementation could decrease the possibility of positive results and potential closure of an entire campus.

A letter from O'Connor Elementary was sent out to parents providing information regarding absences and how monitoring alert levels would proceed. The letter states "More than 15% of our students are out due to COVID-related absences," leaving the campus at a "moderate" alert level. In order to stay at this level, the campus would need to maintain this percentage. An absence rate of 20% or higher related to COVID would require the alert be categorized at "high," allowing for the district administration to consider closure of the campus.

We wish all of those students and teachers a clean bill of health quickly.

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