As a district, we continue to work with state, county and local officials to monitor the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19) in our state. Our executive leadership team is meeting daily at a minimum (including during spring break) to monitor the situation and is receiving numerous updates throughout the day.

As this constantly evolving situation continues to unfold, we will share regular updates with families and staff. Starting tomorrow, we plan to share daily updates with families at approximately 3 p.m. each weekday with the latest information we have. Additional time-sensitive updates will continue to be sent as needed regardless of the time or day. We have also established a page on our website (www.dbqschools.org/coronavirus) that will be a central point to find updates from the district.

At this time, there has been no decision to make adjustments to the school schedule. We will be closely monitoring the situation over the next number of days and any decision to modify school calendars would be made in conjunction with the Iowa Department of Public Health and the Dubuque County Health Department.

Here is the latest:

PRECAUTIONARY MEASURES

Beginning earlier this week and into the future, a number of additional precautionary measures have been or are being put in place across the district:

      • We continue to reinforce with students the importance of preventive measures, in particular hand washing and covering coughs/sneezes with their sleeves.
      • We will indefinitely discontinue the practice of students serving themselves at meal time and will instead have all food plated by school staff.
      • We have placed additional hand sanitizer stations throughout our schools, particularly near the beginning of lunch lines. The sanitizer meets the alcohol content recommendations of the CDC.
      • We will add more frequent table cleanings between lunch shifts.
      • All buildings will discontinue the use of attendance incentives for students and instead focus on promoting that students and staff should remain home if they are ill.
      • We continue to sanitize commonly touched surfaces with hospital-grade disinfectant and will conduct a deep-clean of buildings over spring break.
      • We will review upcoming events scheduled in our facilities, both internal and external, in upcoming days to determine next steps.

SPRING BREAK TRAVEL

We realize that many families and staff have planned trips over spring break both domestically and internationally. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) have identified travel advisories for high-risk areas. Please follow this growing list throughout spring break.

In next week’s updates, we will include the current list of travel advisories and at-risk areas. We expect that individuals traveling from these areas follow the public health guidelines for self-quarantine upon return.

TALKING TO STUDENTS ABOUT COVID-19

We realize that there is a non-stop flood of information regarding coronavirus and that it can leave both adults and particularly students feeling anxious and uncertain. The Child Mind Institute has developed a resource called Talking to Kids About Coronavirus recommended by the American School Counseling Association. The Iowa Department of Public Health has also shared a resource called Tips for Talking to Children about COVID-19. We invite you to use these resources as a guide to help support conversations with your students.

We encourage you to stay up-to-date on the latest coronavirus developments by using reliable sources of information, in particular the Iowa Department of Public Health Coronavirus Webpage and the CDC Coronavirus Webpage. Both provide the most current, factual information regarding coronavirus.