Positive COVID case reported at Lincoln

The Washington Community School District has its first reported positive COVID-19 case of the 2020-21 school year.

On Friday morning, Superintendent Willie Stone sent a letter to district families informing them that someone at Lincoln Elementary School had tested positive for COVID-19.

Stone did not identify the person, nor did he specify whether that person was a student or staff member.

'We want to be as transparent as possible, but we also want to protect the individual's health information,” Stone said Friday afternoon.

In his letter, Stone said that the district is working closely with local public health officials to assist with contact tracing.

'Individuals who have been identified as having ‘close contact' (as defined by local and state public health officials) with the individual who tested positive have already received a separate email communication or phone call regarding necessary procedures and next steps,” Stone wrote in his letter.

The district started the school year with full-time in-person learning, with a requirement that masks be worn by students and staff.

Stone said that the district will continue to maintain its current level of protection for all district facilities.

He said that includes sanitizing buses after each route, regular sanitizing of classrooms throughout each day and fogging each classroom with an electrostatic fogger every night.

'We realize that there will be positive cases,” Stone said. 'We are constantly looking at ways to better protect our students and staff.”

He added that the district is working on a document that tracks positive cases and quarantine numbers that can eventually be posted on the district's web site.

'We want to make sure we have solid numbers before we put it out there,” he said.

In his letter, Stone urged parents and district employees to continuously monitor their health and reminded them to stay home if they exhibit any COVID-19 symptoms.