Parents/Guardians:

Please take a few moments to read this entire email. There is important information about masks and what to do if your student tests positive for COVID-19 or is a close contact of someone who tests positive.

Masks:

We are continuing to require masks for all students, staff and visitors inside our buildings. Universal masking inside our school buildings helps enhance the safety of our students and staff. We wanted to review our process for reporting a positive COVID-19 case and better explain how masks create a safer environment in our schools, per CDC guidelines. You may also refer to the graphic attached to this email for easy reference.

Here’s why masks matter in schools:

• If a student or a staff member tests positive, but everyone in the classroom is wearing a mask properly over their nose and mouth, they are not considered close contacts, per CDC guidelines. 
• If only some people are wearing masks, then in accordance with CDC guidelines, contact tracing may require some students and staff be sent home to quarantine. Anyone who does not have a mask will also be encouraged to get a COVID test. 

If your student is ill:

1. Should your student have any symptoms of COVID-19, please consider getting them tested.
2. Spring ISD is partnering with testing companies and offering free COVID-19 tests on the campuses of Spring and Westfield high schools on a daily basis between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. 
3. Houston Medical ER (2306 Rayford Road, Spring 77386) also is providing free vaccines and testing, Monday through Friday (9 a.m. to 6 p.m.) and Saturday (9 a.m. to 1 p.m.). 
4. If your child tests negative, they can return to school as long as they’ve been fever-free for 24 hours without any medication.
5. If your child tests positive, you need to contact your campus and report the case to the school nurse, who will alert the campus principal and our Emergency Management and School Safety team. 
6. We also recommend testing for the entire family of any student who tests positive.  Unvaccinated siblings/parents/household members should quarantine at home, because they are considered close contacts, per CDC guidelines. Vaccinated siblings/parents/household members do not need to quarantine but should be tested three to five days after exposure, watch for symptoms and wear a mask. 
7. Vaccinated siblings may come to school, as long as they test negative three to five days after exposure, have no symptoms and wear a mask.
8. Your COVID-19 positive student will not be able to return to school until at least 10 days have passed since the positive test and the student is fever-free for 24 hours without the use of fever-reducing medications (fever is a temperature of 100° F or higher), and other symptoms have improved.
9. After 10 days, the student may return to campus but should report first to the nurse for a temperature check or to present a doctor’s note/release. 
10. Please note, that even if your student tests negative before the 10-day period is over, they must still stay at home for the entire 10 days. Unvaccinated siblings of positive students should also stay home for the entire 10 days since they are considered close contacts. 
11. If your COVID-19 positive student  is well enough, they may do and submit make-up work assigned by their teachers. We have paused our remote conferencing option to ensure we have the staffing levels needed for in-person instruction.
12. Close contact students quarantining at home also have the option of  completing and submitting make-up work to keep up with school assignments. 

Our goal this year is to ensure a safe and healthy environment so the school year is not disrupted by COVID-19. As a school district, universal masking protects everyone in the building and gives us a better opportunity to provide continuous instruction. 

Without masks, we will have more cases of COVID-19, higher numbers of people designated as close contacts, and more students and staff ill or quarantining at home. That all adds up to less learning. 

Thank you for your continued support in keeping everyone in Spring ISD safe.

Parents/Guardians:

Starting Monday, all Spring ISD students and staff will be required to wear masks in our buildings as a public health and safety measure.

As you may have heard yesterday evening, Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo mandated that all schools in Harris County require masks to help prevent the spread of the highly contagious Delta variant.

Harris County is now one of four counties across the state where officials enacted orders requiring masks in public schools. As you also may be aware, many Texas school districts in addition to Spring ISD have also issued their own requirements, including Houston, Aldine, Dallas, Fort Worth, San Antonio, Brownsville, Edinburg, and Austin, to name a few.  

We understand there are many perspectives around the issue of masks but our commitment to protect the health and safety of our students and staff is steadfast. Students who do not comply with the mask requirement will face consequences, appropriate to their grade.

At the secondary level, repeated offenses may lead to after school detention and the loss of privileges to participate in both UIL and school-sponsored activities. Among elementary students, principals will work with parents, as well as provide incentives and benefits to maximize compliance.

We must provide an excellent in-person classroom experience this school year to help accelerate the learning of all of our scholars, especially after the disruptions of last year.

To do that, we ALL need to do our part to help mitigate the spread of COVID-19, and that includes wearing a mask. We will also strongly encourage those who are eligible for a COVID-19 vaccine to get one as soon as possible. 

Thank you for your cooperation and commitment to the health and safety of all students and staff in Spring ISD.

Parents/Guardians and Staff:

As promised, I’m updating you on some changes we’ve made to our COVID-19 health and safety protocols. This evening, I announced at our board meeting that we will be requiring the wearing of masks for all students, staff, and visitors to our district buildings and campuses – regardless of vaccination status. This safety protocol will go into effect on Monday, Aug. 16.

Additionally, we will be providing contact tracing within Spring ISD, rather than referring those positive cases to Harris County Public Health for contact tracing. We also will let our families and staff know about any positive cases on our campuses or in our district facilities by sending out a general communication to those at the campus or at the affected work location.

We made these changes to ensure everyone feels like they are getting the information they need about COVID-19 in our school community. For families and staff who were with us for the 2020-21 school year, you’ll remember how this process worked. If there was a positive case on the campus, our Emergency Management & School Safety team would handle the contact tracing, and our principals/administrators would work with our Communications Department to send out a general notification. This process worked very well last year, so we want to continue with it as long as necessary.

In addition, tomorrow (Aug. 11) we will be sending out a survey to all parents/guardians asking about your potential interest in a remote learning option. As you may know, we had been planning to move forward with our Spring Virtual Academy until we learned in June that funding had not been authorized.

We understand from all of your feedback that many families would still like this as an option. Based on the responses to the survey, we’re going to look at all possibilities in providing this virtual alternative to students. We will keep you updated as we move forward, including how to apply.

Kind regards,

Parents/Staff:

With only a few days left before Aug. 11 when all of our schools open their doors, I want to welcome everyone to the 2021-22 school year in Spring ISD and hope you’ll watch our video highlighting all the great programs and opportunities we have for our students this year.

Video message from Superintendent Watson

I know COVID-19 continues to be a concern for many in our community, and I want to reassure you that, along with taking the virus seriously here in Spring ISD, we are in constant touch with local and state officials and will continue to update our protocols as we receive more guidance – especially in light of the spread of more contagious variants of the virus.

On Thursday afternoon, the Texas Education Agency reiterated that all students and staff may wear masks if they choose, and we would certainly encourage everyone who wishes to do so, especially anyone who is not vaccinated. Although we’re all excited to reach the stage when masks are no longer needed, evidence still points to their effectiveness in protecting against the spread of the virus.

We also need everyone’s help in ensuring that students stay home if they are feeling ill or if they receive a positive COVID-19 test. We were especially encouraged to learn that the TEA has opened the door to providing remote instruction for a total of up to 20 days to students who are ill, test positive or need to quarantine because they’re a close contact. 

We will be providing additional information on this as we start the school year, but it’s important to know that this remote option is only available for a limited number of days and may require a note from a physician or documentation of a positive test result.

In addition, we have decided to continue with our COVID-19 tracker for the new school year to help keep everyone informed about conditions in our schools and district. We will be counting on everyone to let us know about positive cases so we can keep our tracker updated with the most accurate information.

We’re all ready for a fresh start with the beginning of the new school year. However, as long as the pandemic continues to impact the health and safety of our community members, we here in Spring ISD will continue to do everything in our power to protect the well-being of students, staff and district families. We still have some challenges ahead, but we are also ready and excited to welcome our students and staff back to school.

Kind regards,

Welcome to the 2021-22 School Year! Here is some important information regarding our COVID-19 health and safety protocols. 

This year, in alignment with the Governor of Texas’ Executive Order GA-34, Spring ISD is not requiring masks for either students or staff. However, if you are concerned, we encourage you to have your child wear face coverings over the nose and mouth when it’s not possible to socially distance, especially for those who are not vaccinated. We know our elementary students are not yet eligible for the vaccine, so we believe masks are an important strategy in keeping our school communities safe. 

In a change from the last school year, we will no longer be requiring students/staff/visitors to undergo temperature checks or other screening procedures before entering the buildings. However, we will continue to emphasize the importance of students/staff/visitors staying home when ill and self-screening for potential COVID-19 symptoms.

We do ask that the parent/guardian of any student who tests positive for COVID-19 let us know so the district can track trends and report to the Harris County Department of Health as required. Parents/guardians will be asked to keep their children at home until they can provide written medical documentation, such as a doctor’s note or test results, releasing students to return to school. Our teachers will assist any students who need access to assignments by uploading them into Schoology or providing paper packets. 

We will continue a regular schedule of cleaning and disinfecting in buildings and buses, as well as encourage the use of hand sanitizer and frequent hand washing. In addition, we will continue our partnership with Harris County Public Health and other private vendors to offer vaccination and testing opportunities as appropriate for our staff and students.  

Finally, we know that health guidance can frequently change, so please know we will update our protocols as needed. Thank you for all your support as we look forward to a successful school year. 

Kind regards,