The safety and well-being of students and staff is always the District's highest priority.  Face coverings have been proven to be an effective mitigation effort against the spread of COVID-19; however, in 2021, the State of Iowa removed the ability for school districts to enforce face covering mandates of any kind.  Lewis Central still believes face coverings are very effective at diminishing the threats of spreading sicknesses including COVID, and all staff and students should feel comfortable exercising their right for this to be an option.. As mentioned previously, by current Iowa law, we do not have the ability to mandate individuals to utilize face coverings in our schools. 

For more information about the types of appropriate face coverings, including how to wash and make your own, visit this CDC webpage.

We have learned a lot about how various efforts to social distance work or don't work in our differing school buildings. We will continue with some of the same efforts to socially distance our students when it can be done effectively. With our buildings fully occupied, significant efforts to socially distance students can be unattainable. 

 Efforts in our various buildings may be implemented as needed and may include but are not limited to:

• Assessing and altering classroom seating arrangements to better utilize the entire classroom and create more space between our students. 

• Reinforcing students using only their own materials such as manipulatives and other resources.

• Staggering classroom dismissal times when possible in our individual buildings. 

• Implementing directional restrictions and markings in our hallways whenever possible for our individual buildings. 

• Implementing the concept of having teachers or staff change locations while students remain in a specific classroom in certain circumstances and whenever possible in our individual buildings. 

• Altering entrance and exit procedures for classrooms during class time.

• Altering lunch protocols, including increasing the number of lunch times and periods, expanding locations in which students eat lunch, spreading out lunch tables and limiting seating at lunch tables. We will stagger lunch dismissal times and serving times, and in some unique cases, bag lunches may be brought to the students.

• Altering school dismissal procedures in our two elementary schools, eliminating the need for parents to enter the school buildings.

• Encouraging mask utilization as a mitigation strategy to help with:

  • Hallway travel throughout our schools.

  • Standing in lines for lunch servings. 

  • Limited small group instruction that includes social distancing.

  • Limited one-on-one instruction that includes social distancing.

• Limiting or eliminating large group student assemblies.

• Limiting non-essential visitors, volunteers, and outside groups. 

• Implementing high expectations for students to monitor their own social distancing. We will not condone students gathering in large groups.

• Expecting parents to support and reinforce these expectations with their students.

Our efforts may include but are not limited to the following:

• Altering and increasing cleaning schedules and procedures to meet the needs of keeping our classrooms sanitized on a daily basis and as needed. 

• Utilizing newly purchased equipment such as electrostatic sprayers.

• Providing an abundance of hand sanitizer to students and staff in every classroom, at entrances and throughout our buildings. 

• Implementing protocols of leaving classroom doors open whenever possible to minimize the number of hands touching door handles. Disinfecting wipes will be available to our staff to frequently sanitize door handles.

• Implementing hand hygiene protocols, including times that will be scheduled for students and staff to wash their hands frequently throughout the school day and at appropriate times.

This remains one of our biggest challenges as we manage school during the Covid pandemic. In typical situations, we tend to run low on the needed number of bus drivers. It is not feasible to double the size of our transportation team. In light of these facts, our efforts will include but are not limited to:

• Encouraging any and all parents who can arrange to transport their children to and from school, to please do so in an effort to diminish the number of students on buses.

• Providing parents who are willing to provide their own transportation time considerations with getting their children to school. 

• Minimizing the number of students on buses to allow for more social distancing. 

• Encouraging mask utilization for all students and staff on school buses.   

• Sanitizing our buses with electrostatic sprayers on a daily basis between morning and afternoon routes, and again in the evening. 

• Implementing student health checks (mentioned below) every morning, prior to leaving their home.  

We will begin the year as we would any other year.  If we have drivers that test positive for COVID-19, we will first utilize our substitute drivers. If we have all our substitute drivers driving and we continue to have drivers test positive, we will first need to know the number of students that need transportation.

Considerations include:   

• Possibly create a third tier and/or extend routes

• Determine if an adjacent route has room 

• Robo call asking parents to take students

• Have vans pick up students

• Consider modifying school drop off/pick up times

• Combine HS/MS students with elementary students

Things we will continue to monitor that impact transportation routes include the number of students participating in remote learning, students being dropped off/picked up and students on each bus for both the AM/PM routes.

If we have too many drivers testing positive, the difficulty to provide sustainable transportation may cause the District to consider remote learning.

We are putting many efforts and protocols in place to monitor the health of our students and staff. These efforts include but are not limited to:

• Recommending that students and staff who show symptoms not to attend school and that they visit with their medical professional before returning symptom free.  

• Reviewing and altering attendance policies, as we know there will be greater attendance issues. We will implement equipment allowing us better capability of quickly assessing student and staff temperatures.

At this time, there are no additional restrictions being recommended by public health or the state governing bodies for girls and boys activities. We will continue to follow their guidance when necessary to ensure safe participation of students and attendance by families and community members. 

Due to graduation requirements, High School students with documented health concerns or other extenuating concerns and circumstances will be provided an online learning opportunity. We want our families to know we will try to be responsive to the needs and concerns of our community, and upon request we will work with you on a case-by-case basis to determine the best plan for each child. 

Students will return to the school building for a traditional model of learning with the above mitigation efforts in place for the 2022-23 school year. High School students with documented health concerns or other extenuating concerns and circumstances will be provided an online learning opportunity. We will be responsive to the needs and concerns of our community, and upon request we will work with families on a case-by-case basis to determine the best plan for each child.

High School students who provide a documented health concerts may not report to school but they would be required to engage in a robust online learning platform provided by the district.  Attendance will be taken. This mode would include students completing work for grades and completing graded assessments. 

The answer is no. Iowa public schools have been ordered to  always have in-person, on campus learning option. The State must approve any district’s request to close their doors based upon COVID-19 concerns. 

Lewis Central remains committed to our students and families, and we will do our very best to be responsive to individual needs. Due to a much lower anticipated number of requests for remote learning, we cannot afford to dedicate full time Lewis Central teachers to online learning. If there are documented health concerns relating to specific High School students or families, we will work with that family to provide an outsourced remote learning option. We will contract with a company for a robust program that parallels our curriculum and instruction. High School students are being provided this option due to the graduation credit requirements. 

Families dealing with documented health concerns should discuss this option with their school personnel, beginning with the principal. 

There is no requirement for students or staff members to wear face coverings. It is the district's recommendation that students and staff consider utilizing face covering, especially when they are showing symptoms related to COVID. 

No. While we will make efforts to socially distance our students when feasible, we are not capable of maintaining 6 feet of distance between our students at all times. 

Classrooms will be sanitized with appropriate cleaning materials, including electrostatic disinfectors, every day and on an as needed basis during the day. Our buses will be sanitized each evening and between the a.m. and p.m. routes.  

No. Due to the size of our fleet and our ongoing shortage of bus drivers, we are not able to diminish the number of students on each of our school buses. 

Students and staff who have a fever, diarrhea, and vomiting or other serious health-related symptoms should not report to school. We will continue to provide help for self-assessments to be utilized at home by students and staff for health monitoring. Students or staff members who develop symptoms during the day may be sent home and asked to confer with their doctors. You can see the health office protocols emailed out by our school nurses last year here.

Students who develop COVID like symptoms during the school day will be assessed by health office. If a student has COVID-like symptoms, parents may be notified to pick up their child. 

If a staff member has a fever, diarrhea, or is vomiting, or has a positive COVID-19 test, they will not report to work. If a staff member tests positive, IDHP recommendations will be followed. 

Yes. When guidance and protocols change, and any time we receive information that is critical to operation of our schools, we will communicate accordingly with our LC families in a timely manner. 

In most cases, yes. Some younger students may be new to Seesaw or Google Classroom, but it’s our intention that teachers will continue utilizing these models. 

Technology support is available from 8:00 am - 4:00 pm, Monday - Friday, to provide support to faculty, students, and parenting adults, and provide the necessary support and recommendations for effective technology usage. Parents may contact District tech support by emailing our Help Desk or calling them at 712-366-8555. Families who do not currently have internet access at their home or would like to check out a student Chromebook may do so at the same email address.