Dear Pattonville families and staff,

We are excited to welcome all our new and returning students and staff back into our classrooms when school begins on Aug. 23. Over the summer months, we have been monitoring local conditions related to COVID-19 and developing plans with two priorities in mind:

• Keeping everyone healthy and safe; and

• Providing in-person learning, five days a week, without interruption.

After reviewing guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the St. Louis County Department of Public Health (DPH) and the American Academy of Pediatrics, we are putting in place the following health and safety protocols for the new school year until further notice. For more details on our health and safety protocols, visit our COVID-19 Information Hub at bit.ly/PSDCOVIDinfohub.

• Masks: All students, staff and visitors will be required to wear masks over their nose and mouth while indoors at school and on the bus. Infectious disease experts at the CDC, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the county health department strongly recommend masks for all students and staff at school, regardless of vaccination status. All along, we have relied on the guidance of health experts in making decisions about our health and safety strategies related to COVID, and doing so enabled us to bring students back into the classroom early on last year and maintain a stable, consistent learning approach throughout the year.

• Continuing successful mitigation strategies: We will continue to follow physical distancing strategies to the greatest extent possible. We’ll emphasize good handwashing hygiene practices and continue to ask students and staff to monitor their health and to stay home if they develop symptoms. 

• Quarantines: We will follow DPH’s guidelines on isolation for positive cases and quarantining of close contacts. The good news is that people who are fully vaccinated and show no symptoms may not be required to quarantine after an exposure if they meet certain criteria outlined by the health department. The wearing of masks at school increases the chances that your child can remain in school if they are identified as a close contact at school. 

• Vaccines: We encourage everyone eligible (ages 12 and up) to get vaccinated. Health officials emphasize that COVID-19 vaccines are the main strategy to end the pandemic. While no vaccine is 100% effective, the COVID-19 vaccines have been shown to be highly effective at preventing severe disease or hospitalization. The delta variant of the illness is the prevalent version in our region and is much more contagious than the variants seen over the last year, making the need for vaccines that much more urgent. To find out where to get a vaccine, visit Pattonville’s COVID-19 Information Hub at bit.ly/PSDCOVIDinfohub.

• Contact tracing and vaccine records: In an effort to assist us with contact tracing, we are asking parents/guardians to inform us if their child has been vaccinated, and we are asking the same of our staff members. This is strictly voluntary, but it will save us - and you - valuable time in the contact tracing efforts. Families, we will be in touch in the coming weeks with instructions as to how you can notify us that your child has been vaccinated. Staff will receive a separate email with instructions on how to let us know. 

Everyone did an incredible job last year being there for our students, families and each other through the most difficult circumstances. While we, as a nation and a region, are not where we hoped we would be with regard to COVID-19 at this time, we in Pattonville remain strong in our mission to serve and support our students. We stand strong as we approach a new school year because we stand together, we stand for our students. And we always will. Have a great school year. We’ll see you soon.