Good Afternoon to our Spencer-Owen Community School Families,
Due to the increasing absence rate of our students and staff at Gosport Elementary School, as a result of student and staff illness, confirmed positive Covid-19 cases and large student quarantines, the school building will be closed for in-person instruction at the end of the school day on Wednesday, August 25. Gosport Elementary will re-open for in-person instruction on Tuesday, September 7, 2021. During the closure students will participate in remote learning activities provided by their classroom teachers.
This action was made in consultation and guidance from the Indiana Department of Health, the Owen County Health Department, and the Indiana Department of Education. The decision to close the school was not made in haste or taken lightly.
Our goal as a community has always been to keep our students in school for direct instruction from their teachers. As of August 25, Gosport Elementary School had the following absence rates:
• 24% of the student population is absent due to illness and/or confirmed Covid-19 cases.
• 28.5% of the staff is absent due to illness and/or confirmed Covid-19 cases.
The spread of the ‘Delta’ version of Covid-19 is unlike anything we were accustomed to over the past school year. The school system will continue to collect and review data for all schools in order to ensure that our students have the opportunity to learn in-person as long as possible.
We will begin posting a weekly update on the school website with data highlighting our confirmed, positive Covid-19 cases; as well as, the number of individuals affected by quarantine protocols. As a reminder again, this data will be reviewed in order to provide guidance in updating the current re-entry plan for the district. Our main goal is to ensure student safety and the opportunity to meaningfully learn.
Respectfully,
Andy Cline
Superintendent of Schools