Dear Lancer Family,
This letter is to inform you about CCS’s ongoing response to coronavirus concerns. While the situation remains dynamic, as of today, the CDC has placed five countries on Level 2 or Level 3 travel alerts: China, South Korea, Italy, Iran, and Japan. CDC guidelines for travelers returning to the United States from those countries currently states, “travelers should stay home for 14 days after returning to the United States and practice social distancing.” If you or a family member living in your home have been to one of these countries (even for a short stop), please know that self-quarantine would apply to students and employees in our community and would require those under self-quarantine to stay home from school/work. We will help any student in quarantine circumstances. Please contact your divisional Principal if your family is affected by any such travel quarantine so we can help. Otherwise, the school will remain open unless and until we announce a school closure upon advisement by local, state, or federal health experts. However, even while the school remains open, we encourage students, faculty and staff not to return to campus if you have any cold or flu like symptoms, or if you have any reasonable belief that you came into contact with an individual who has, or may have, COVID-19.
Our community is prepared to alter our procedures and planning should the situation change, including strategies for continuing the learning process via our current online school portal and other technologies in the event of school closure for an extended time.
To protect the health of everyone in our school, given the coronavirus outbreak’s continued spread, effective immediately we will now require all visitors to CCS to complete a CCS Health Screening Questionnaire at the main entrance. If a prospective visitor answers “yes” to any questions on the questionnaire the visitor will be denied access to the campus and asked to reschedule their meeting or make other arrangements. Prospective visitors will be denied access to the campus if they: have traveled to China, Italy, Iran, Japan, or South Korea; had contact with someone diagnosed with COVID-19, or have experienced any cold or flu-like symptoms within the last 14 days. A visitor in this case is anyone other than staff, parents and students who are regularly on campus. When possible, we will email the questionnaire to visitors in advance of any planned meetings, tours, etc.
International students at CCS have been told they may not travel home over spring break. Of course, that does not account for other CCS families that may, over the break, choose to travel (domestically or internationally), go on a cruise, visit theme parks, or attend events or visit places where there are large gatherings of people. I would request, for the safety of your own family, and for CCS, that you carefully evaluate the potential risks of these activities and adhere to the advice and recommendations of the CDC and other official health authorities. If you do choose to travel, please ensure that your children are not displaying any symptoms or signs of illness before they return. Sick students need to stay home.
Please remember, the single-most common piece of advice being given by health professionals to reduce the spread of the virus is to continue with simple preventative measures, like washing hands, not sharing drinks, and staying home when sick. If your child is home sick with your approval and notification to the appropriate divisional office, CCS will not penalize students for complying with the recommendation to stay home. Our staff will continue to remind students to wash their hands and will do our very best to keep our campus clean and sanitized.
Thank you for your patience with these health and safety measures as we continue to address this outbreak together. We continue to pray for an end to the spread of the coronavirus and for God’s continued hand of protection over our school and the surrounding community.
For His Kingdom,
Shawn Minks, M. Ed.
