Tuesday December 8, 2020 at 1:30pm to All

Good Afternoon Union City Families,
 
I am calling with some very important updates.
 
Between last evening and this morning we have learned of 2 more positive COVID-19 results that impact our secondary school. All contact tracing and deep cleaning has already taken place. We have some pending probable cases in both buildings as well. We know we are at the threshold of needing to close either the elementary, the secondary or both to ensure all deep cleaning takes place, as well as proper contact tracing. This information is in our health and safety plan on page 28. We also are experiencing a shortage of staff with the high amount of quarantines and illnesses over the past several days. 
 
At this time, it is in the best interest of the health, safety, and welfare of our students, faculty, and staff to move to remote instruction beginning tomorrow, Wednesday, December 9th. Our district will continue virtually through December 21st. These are the 9 school days before the holiday break. The format is the same as before. Students must attend class online, attendance is mandatory, and grades do count. 
 
Starting December 14th the Internet Cafe will once again be available. If you wish for your student to be transported to school for connectivity reasons or special needs circumstances, please contact your building principal ASAP or by Thursday at the latest. This will give us an opportunity to plan our bus routes as well as our learning environments. 
 
Tomorrow through Friday the internet cafe will not be available due to cleaning. A school official will be calling families whose students use the internet cafe to see if work will need delivered to your residence over the next three days due to lack of high speed internet.  You may also reach out to your building principal to make this request.
 
We have made some changes to extra curricular activities. Wrestling will be paused until at least December 26th to ensure we provide a safe environment for our student-athletes. 
 
Swimming, basketball, and cheerleading will be allowed to continue with the stringent health protocols we have implemented. At this time no fans will be permitted at games/matches, but we will broadcast them. 
 
Again, We will reassess where things stand after the holiday and communicate to parents in advance of our plans. Our goal would be to be back in person on January 4th, but we will know better where we stand in a few weeks. 
 
I want to apologize for any inconvenience this short notice may have caused. 
 
Please contact your building principal with any questions or concerns and have a great day! 


Thank you and stay well!

--
Matthew W. Bennett
Superintendent
Union City Area School District