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Dear Families,
Today our administration was excited to welcome back our teachers and staff as we prepare to meet students at our doors this Wednesday. In advance of our first day, I wanted to briefly update you on a few items related to our health protocols. We currently remain under our Governor's Executive Order which mandates masking for all students and staff indoors at school. We know our community shares varying viewpoints on this requirement, but it is still one that is legally binding for Oak Grove to follow. As I have done in the past, I will continue to share updates with families on our health metrics through OG News or email blasts, and our administration will let our families know of any COVID-19 positive cases amongst students or staff this year.
Our county and zip code incidence rates for COVID-19 cases still register in the "High" category according to the CDC metric indicators. Our staff is prepared and will be implementing all mitigation measures outlined in our recent webinars beginning on Wednesday. Finally, as of last week, the IDPH is releasing vaccination rates by zip code. Our zip code vaccination rate registers at 62.96% fully vaccinated and 67.47% having received one dose as of 8.10.21. Please note -- the denominator for this rate is the total population of individuals in our zip code, including those currently not eligible for the vaccine at this time. These rates place us at the top of the second highest CDC tier for vaccination rate -- which is great news.
We look forward to seeing your child(ren) soon! And before I end this note, I want to send a quick shout-out to six special Kindergarten students -- Keegan, Lucy, Jaxson, Maggie, Kate, and Mariana -- who weathered a broken-down bus with their Superintendent on their way to our Kindergarten Kick-Off event last Friday. You brought me many smiles while playing rounds of "I-Spy" as we awaited our "rescue." You, and the hundreds of other Oak Grovers, are why we are here and who we will protect and grow under our care. And Wednesday's ride is guaranteed to be much quicker!
Allison Sherman
Superintendent,
Oak Grove SD 68
