Dear Pattonville families and staff,

As we head into spring break, I want to share a few important updates with you.

• It’s extremely important that everyone continues to be vigilant in following our COVID-19 health and safety protocols while at school. Proper mask wearing is one of the most critical strategies to prevent the transmission of COVID-19. Everyone must continue to follow this procedure.

• In order for us to be successful in phase 1, we need to work together to ensure that students are staying home when sick. This includes students showing any COVID-19 symptoms. During our contract tracing process, in conjunction with several recent positive cases, we determined that in some cases, the only reason other students are being impacted and forced to quarantine is because the students who tested positive came to school when having symptoms. While we are not seeing significant in-school transmission based on our contact tracing, it’s crucial that families keep their children home when sick or showing symptoms. Sending students to school under these conditions is impacting other students by causing them to be quarantined and miss in-person school.

• Although we can better control the implementation of health and safety guidelines in school, our behaviors outside of school are just as important. Large student gatherings (parties, etc.) have been proven to be events that contribute to the spread of COVID-19. We have seen other local high schools shut down due to large gatherings away from school. As we head into the last two months of school, the decisions and actions we make can not only impact ourselves, but our classmates and their families as well. Please be mindful of this as we head into spring break.

• On March 15, the St. Louis County Department of Public Health (DPH) revised its quarantine guidelines. Students or staff members who are identified as a close contact to a positive case will now be required to quarantine for 10 days instead of 14 days as long as they are not showing symptoms.

• This school year has been difficult for many of our students, but it’s especially impacted our seniors’ final year at PHS. We are working closely with the St. Louis County health department on our graduation plans and are hoping we can also provide some kind of senior event to close out the school year. More information to come.

The last 12 months have been unlike anything any of us have ever experienced. It’s been a year of stress and hardships, but it’s also been a year of triumphs and growth. I’m proud of the way our students, staff and families have risen to meet the challenges of the last year and stayed the course to ensure student success. I’m looking forward to finishing Pattonville Strong alongside the entire Pattonville school community.