School System Announces COVID Prevention Methods For Upcoming School Year

Students Begin School Year on Wednesday, August 11th

Darren Doyle, story and photo:
Superintendent of Edmonson County Schools Brian Alexander has announced additional COVID prevention measures taken by the school district for the upcoming school year.​

There are currently no mask mandates except for those riding on school buses, which is state mandated.

At this time the only masking mandate that we are following is the mandate for students to be masked to board the bus to and from their home in the mornings and evenings," Supt. Alexander said. "Buses will be ventilated to the highest degree possible, with roof hatches open and windows down at the beginning of school, weather permitting. Once again this year, we will choose not to utilize switch-buses as to not run the risk of additional exposure to students who ride the bus."

Alexander said that masking in schools is encouraged but will not be required, according to current guidelines. 

"Also, we will work hard in every instance possible to maintain social distance of 3 feet as is recommended," he said.

Edmonson County School district will follow KDE guidance with respect to quarantine guidelines for students and staff that are COVID positive or quarantined due to close contact.

"This is a very fluid situation, but we work hard to follow the latest guidance," he added.
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Below are additional points of consideration:

• We will be turning off water foundations, but leaving bottle filling stations open, as these are touchless. We will provide students with water bottles if they forget to bring one from home.  
• We will continue to clean with chemicals that will kill COVID 19, yet safe for students and staff in the school environment  
• We will continue to use electrostatic sprayers to encompass large areas and hard to reach spaces with Covid fighting disinfectants  
• We are working toward getting bipolar ionization devices on our HVAC systems to circulate clean air.  This will aid with the prevention of not only COVID, but also Strep, Flu and Staph, as well as and other airborne viruses and bacteria.  
• We will sanitize desks between students with a solution to kill the virus  
• All high traffic areas such as door knobs, desks, hand sanitizer stations, rails, bottle filling stations, and bathrooms are wiped down and cleaned multiple times a day with high quality & safe chemicals to kill Covid 19, yet safe for students and staff in the school environment  
• Our floors are mopped with solution known to kill Covid-19, yet safe for students and staff in the school environment
• Hand washing is highly encouraged throughout the day and hand sanitizer stations will always filled completely
•  We continue to work to find new products and methods to keep students and staff safe at school and on their travels to and from school.

​"Please know that we are doing everything we can to keep students and staff safe in terms of cleaning our schools and our buses," Alexander stated.

The first day for students is Wednesday, August 11th. You can visit the school district calendar right here on the Edmonson Voice.