Westfield Washington Schools announced on Tuesday there are four confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the school system. All four individuals are employees of the transportation department. All are in isolation at home.
A statement issued by the school district said:
“We are working with our local health department to follow the CDC guidelines. The confirmed cases are in self isolation and those who are considered close contacts have been notified and are required to self quarantine at home. Those individuals will not return to work until they’ve met all of the required safety criteria to return, including isolating at home and being symptom free.
“Due to employees being quarantined and in isolation, we are experiencing a bus driver shortage and some routes will be doubled in order to transport all students to school. In other words, drivers will run their assigned routes and after dropping students at school, will run an additional route. This will result in longer delays than normal because drivers will be disinfecting buses before they run their second route.
“If your bus route will be double routed, you will be notified by our transportation department. Students who are late to school will not be marked as tardy.”
School officials want to remind parents and students that it’s important to remain home if you are experiencing COVID-19 symptoms and keep children who have symptoms or are being tested for COVID-19 at home. Contact the school and report the absence and the reason for the absence.
Students/parents should report a positive case to their school (during the school day), or should use the WWS COVID phone line after hours: (317) 867-8056. This phone line will send an automated notification to the Director of Human Resources and Safety and to the District Head Nurse.