Dear East Prairie families,
We hope the last day of 2021 finds you, and those you love, happy and healthy! We trust your family has enjoyed the extended time over winter break together, and wish you all the best in the year ahead!
We are reaching out with additional information headed into the New Year, and looking forward to students resuming in-person learning on Monday, January 3, 2022.
Health & Safety Remain Our Utmost Priority
We are mindful of the increase in COVID-19 cases resulting from the Omicron variant, considerate of transmission in our community, and the overall ongoing fears and concerns associated with this Pandemic. Since the Pandemic began, we have remained flexible, agile, and responsive to the needs of the moment. We remain educated on and fully support public health advice. As policy and guidance change, we have quickly embraced these changes in support of learning for each child, every day. While the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently updated its recommendations for the length of quarantine time for those who test positive or are considered close contacts, please note that this guidance has NOT changed timelines for schools as of today - including staff, faculty, and students. Schools are continuing to utilize the IDPH COVID-19 School Guidance. We continue to work closely with the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) and the Skokie Health Department (SHD), and will share with you relevant updates as we move forward.
While we remain confident in our mitigation measures, we also encourage you - out of an abundance of caution - to test your child(ren) prior to their return to school. While this is certainly not required, it is yet another measure that can be taken to ensure the safety and wellbeing of our children, families, staff, and community.
To open our school safely come January 3rd, with guidance from ISBE, IDPH, and SHD we encourage staff, students, and families to:
- Get vaccinated. Vaccines remain the best public health measure to protect people from COVID-19, slow transmission, and reduce the likelihood of new variants emerging. Discuss vaccination with your child’s pediatrician.
- Get boosted. Boosters are critical to combatting new COVID-19 variants and staff, families, and any students already eligible should get boosted.
- Get tested prior to returning to school on January 3rd. Current vaccines are expected to protect against severe illness, hospitalizations, and deaths due to infection with the Omicron variant. However, breakthrough infections in people who are fully vaccinated are likely to occur. With other variants, like Delta, vaccines have remained effective at preventing severe illness, hospitalizations, and death. The recent emergence of Omicron further emphasizes the importance of vaccination, boosters, and testing. PCR and SHIELD are recommended tests (instead of the RAPID test) because of their higher level of accuracy for detecting COVID transmission. Given that there may be delays in receiving results, we encourage families to test 2-3 days before January 3rd. Please find a list of local testing locations at the end of this message.
We remain committed to continuing our multiple layers of mitigation in order to support in-person learning:
- promoting COVID-19 vaccination (including boosters) for those eligible (see FDA vaccine fact sheet for more information: https://www.fda.gov/media/153717/download)
- consistent and correct use of masks
- physical distancing
- screening testing and symptomatic testing
- optimal ventilation
- handwashing and respiratory etiquette
- staying home when sick and getting tested
- testing and contact tracing in combination with isolation and quarantine
- routine cleaning with disinfection under certain conditions
- forgoing snack times for the timebeing.
SHIELD testing
SHIELD testing will take place the Monday we return from break, January 3rd. Given ongoing variants and the winter months ahead we will continue to SHIELD test everyone who currently participates. If you would like to change this status for your child please use the attached form. If your child is already opted out and you would like them to get tested, please reach out to Nurse Hannah (hsahyouni@eps73.net).
Thank you for keeping your child home if they have symptoms or are not feeling well. The ongoing diligence of our community will help to keep everyone safe and in-school.
Looking Ahead
We will continue to prioritize health and safety protocols, as well as, constant communication as we enter another phase of the pandemic. School and district offices will reopen on Monday, January 3rd. We look forward to welcoming our students back for in-person learning on this day as well.
Please reach out to our team with any questions or if there is anything that we can do to support your child(ren) or family at this time. Whatever 2022 has in store for us, we are confident that we will continue to rise to the challenge, and do our best to learn, grow, and have some fun along the way!
In partnership,
The East Prairie team
COVID testing is available at the following locations:
- Prism Health Holiday Inn Skokie Clinic 5300 W. Touhy Av., Skokie 224-420-9639
- COVID-19 Drive-Thru Testing at Walgreens (appointment required) 5600 W. Touhy Av., Niles 847-588-1704
- PCR COVID-19 Testing 7514 Skokie Boulevard #7, Skokie 847-530-4994
- Skokie COVID Test Center 3941 Oakton Street, Skokie 847-410-7385
- PCR Testing Skokie Medical Laboratory 8305 Skokie Boulevard, Skokie 847-983-8856
- FREE COVID Care (directory of testing locations)
- Illinois Department of Public Health (List of all testing sites)
- Skokie Health Department (List of all testing sites)
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