Beginning Friday, Feb. 4, under the Rockwood Safe Together plan approved by the Board of Education on Dec. 16, schools and buildings with rates of positive cases and close contacts who are out with symptoms that are less than 4 percent will move from mask required to mask recommended.  

Additionally, as a reminder, the following changes to the Rockwood Safe Together plan went into effect on  Jan. 12:

• A positive student/staff member needs to stay at home for 5 days, and if they are asymptomatic or their symptoms are resolving (without fever for 24 hours), they may return to school followed by 5 days of wearing a mask; 

• Students and staff who are close contacts and healthy may remain in school;

• A close contact to a positive student/staff member who has multiple symptoms needs to stay home and may return after 5 days if they are asymptomatic and they have been fever free for 24 hours. They may return sooner if they are well and have a physician’s diagnosis other than COVID-19 or produce a negative COVID test (not a home test).

When students and staff travel to other schools or facilities, they are expected to respect and follow that district's or facility’s mask protocol.

You can see daily updates of your school’s status under Health Indicators on the district website, which shows the total number of students and staff out by building because they either have COVID or they are close contacts and exhibiting symptoms of COVID. This is the data we are using for our percentage thresholds for adjusting mitigation measures by building.

We want to assure you that we will continue to closely monitor COVID numbers in our buildings every day, and we will continue to work with building administrators to adjust mitigation strategies and provide staffing support where needed. 

Our goal continues to be to keep students and staff healthy and in school.

As a reminder, please keep your child home if they are sick. We continue to encourage mask wearing, vaccination and boosters for those who are eligible. We will continue our additional Rockwood Safe Together mitigation measures that have been in place throughout the pandemic, including physical distancing to the extent possible, good hand hygiene and daily cleaning and sanitation protocols. 

Thank you for your understanding and flexibility as we continue to navigate this pandemic and work to keep our students and staff safe, healthy and in school. 

On Tuesday, Jan. 11, the Board of Education voted to extend the district’s mask requirement through Feb. 3, 2022. Additionally, the following changes to the Rockwood Safe Together plan will go into effect Wednesday, Jan. 12:

• A positive student/staff member will need to stay at home for 5 days and if they are asymptomatic or their symptoms are resolving (without fever for 24 hours), they may return to school followed by 5 days of wearing a mask (even if the district is in a mask recommended setting); 

• Students and staff who are close contacts and healthy may remain in school;

  • This practice will be retroactive back to January 3, 2022 and include those individuals who had been quarantined.  Notices to all who are in this category to return if asymptomatic will be sent Wednesday, Jan. 12;  

• A close contact to a positive student/staff member who has multiple symptoms will need to stay home and may return after 5 days if they are asymptomatic and they have been fever free for 24 hours. They may return sooner if they are well and have a physician’s diagnosis other than COVID or produce a negative COVID test (not a home test);

• Building-wide notifications of positive cases will end. (Close contacts of a positive case will still receive a notification, and the Health Indicators by school on the website will continue to be updated twice a day).

Also, beginning Wednesday, Jan. 12, you will see an addition to our Health Indicators on the district website that shows the total number of students and staff out by building because they either have COVID or they are close contacts and exhibiting symptoms of COVID. This is the data we will use for our 2 percent and 4 percent thresholds for adjusting mitigation measures by building and when we move to a mask recommendation.

We want to assure you that we are closely monitoring COVID numbers in our buildings multiple times a day and we are working with building administrators to adjust mitigation strategies and provide staffing support where needed. 

Our goal continues to be to keep students and staff healthy and in school.

As a reminder, please keep your child home if they are sick. We continue to encourage mask wearing, vaccination and boosters for those who are eligible. We, of course, will continue our additional Rockwood Safe Together mitigation measures that have been in place, including physical distancing to the extent possible, good hand hygiene and daily cleaning and sanitation protocols. 

Thank you for your understanding and flexibility as we continue to navigate this pandemic and work to keep our students and staff safe, healthy and in school. 

December 16, 2021 

On Thursday, Dec. 16, the Rockwood Board of Education approved an update to the Rockwood Safe Together plan for COVID-19 mitigation in our schools and communities. Changes to the plan include:

• Masks being recommended at all Rockwood buildings beginning Jan. 18, 2022 (the first day of second semester);
• Allowing healthy students who are deemed close contacts to remain in school;
• Ending building-wide notifications of a positive case. (Close contacts of a positive case would still receive a notification, and the Health Indicators by school on the website would continue to be updated daily);

Masking on public transportation, which includes buses, will continue per federal requirements. 

The plan has a mechanism for buildings to return to a mask requirement for a period of two weeks if the building has a 4 percent or more positivity and/or exclusion rate (number of staff and students home with multiple symptoms).

For several weeks, Dr. Ricker and his leadership team have been consulting with health advisors, legal advisors, other area school leaders and the Board of Education to consider possible adjustments to the Rockwood Safe Together Plan for the second semester. “We have examined this update from every level and carefully considered the impact on our students and staff,” said Dr. Ricker. “The consensus has been that this updated plan is a practical and responsible approach to continue to mitigate the pandemic in our buildings while keeping healthy students and staff in school. Our mitigation strategies over the past year have served us well as we have seen very little transmission in our schools and we are now ready to move forward with the next phase of our plan. By giving adequate notice, this will also give more staff and students an opportunity to get vaccinated if they haven’t already done so. Having said that, it is important that we are all willing to pivot quickly if we have a significant uptick in cases at the building level.”

You can find additional details of the Rockwood Safe Together plan updates here.

Interim Superintendent Dr. Tim Ricker met this week with the EdPlus workgroup, other area superintendents, Rockwood attorneys and district leaders to review and discuss data related to COVID-19 in our community and in our buildings, as well as the Cole County Court ruling.

COVID-19 in Rockwood
From Nov. 15 through Nov. 28, Rockwood had 107 student positives and 266 student quarantines across the district. An additional 623 students were determined to be close contacts during that time, but because both the positive individual and the student were masked and/or vaccinated, those students have been able to remain in school. This represents an increase in both positive student cases and student quarantines when compared to the previous two-week period (89 student positives and 193 student quarantines).

Additional data reviewed by Dr. Ricker and his team included Community Health Indicators (regional transmission rates, positive test rates, seven-day average of new daily case rates, 14-day comparison of change in new cases, as well as rate of cases by age group) and vaccination rates by age. 
 

Cole County Court Ruling
Since the ruling, district leaders have been working closely with our attorneys to fully understand its implications on our Rockwood Safe Together Mitigation strategies. “We have been advised that the district has the authority to make needful rules and regulations to protect Rockwood students and staff, which is why there have been no immediate changes to our mitigation strategies and procedures,” said Dr. Ricker. “Having said that, we are consulting with health advisors, other area school leaders, our attorneys and the Board of Education to consider next steps. Rest assured, we are all looking to return to more familiar settings in our schools. But we want to be thoughtful and thorough as we consider any changes to safety measures that impact the welfare of thousands of students and staff.”

Moving Forward
Rockwood’s top priority is to keep as many students and staff members safe, healthy and learning in an in-school environment as possible. Our Rockwood Safe Together mitigation strategies have served us well, including indoor masking; practicing social distancing and good hand hygiene; maintaining strict cleaning regimens for our facilities; encouraging students and staff members to stay home when they’re not feeling well; and encouraging staff and eligible students to get vaccinated if they haven’t already done so. 

All K-12 students are now eligible to receive a COVID-19 vaccine. Rockwood held its first pediatric vaccine clinics on Nov. 13 and Nov. 20, and more than 800 students received a first dose of the vaccine. We are also asking our parents to voluntarily share the vaccination status of their students, to aid in contact tracing procedures as well as providing a measure of vaccination status in our buildings.

As we move closer to the winter break, we will certainly keep you apprised of any changes to our Rockwood Safe Together plan.

Interim Superintendent Dr. Tim Ricker met this week with the EdPlus workgroup, other area superintendents and Rockwood leaders to review and discuss data related to COVID-19 in our community and in our buildings.

From Nov. 1 through Nov. 14, Rockwood had 87 student positives and 193 student quarantines across the district. An additional 630 students were determined to be close contacts during that time, but because both the positive individual and the student were masked and/or vaccinated, those students have been able to remain in school. This represents an increase in positive student cases and student quarantines when compared to the previous two-week period (50 student positives and 169 student quarantines).

Additional data reviewed by Dr. Ricker and his team included Community Health Indicators (regional transmission rates, positive test rates, seven-day average of new daily case rates, 14-day comparison of change in new cases, as well as rate of cases by age group) and vaccination rates by age. 

Rockwood’s top priority is to keep as many students and staff members safe, healthy and learning in an in-school environment as possible. To that end, we are continuing the Rockwood Safe Together mitigation strategies that have served us well, including indoor masking; practicing social distancing and good hand hygiene; maintaining strict cleaning regimens for our facilities; encouraging students and staff members to stay home when they’re not feeling well; and encouraging staff and eligible students to get vaccinated if they haven’t already done so. 

All K-12 students are now eligible to receive a COVID-19 vaccine. Rockwood held our first pediatric vaccine clinic on Nov. 13 at Crestview Middle, where 500 students received the vaccine. Appointments filled very quickly, and we are actively looking to schedule more clinics as a convenience for our families. The next clinic is Saturday, Nov. 20, at Eureka High. You can find more details about the Eureka High clinic here.  We have also asked our parents to voluntarily share the vaccination status of their students, to aid in contact tracing procedures as well as factoring into future decisions about mitigation strategies.

“While we experienced an increase in positive cases over the past two weeks, we are continuing to see success with our Rockwood Safe Together mitigation strategies in terms of providing a safe, continuous in-person learning environment for our students and staff,” Dr. Ricker shared. “As we head into a holiday break, we ask that members of our community be mindful of health and safety strategies to help keep our students and staff members in school. We also encourage all parents to work with their health care professionals to determine if the vaccine is right for their children.The more we can demonstrate that students and staff are vaccinated, the closer we will be to adjusting some of our mitigation measures in our schools. We continue to be very grateful to our community for cooperating and supporting mitigation efforts in our schools.”

Interim Superintendent Dr. Tim Ricker met this week with the EdPlus workgroup, other area superintendents and Rockwood leaders to review and discuss data related to COVID-19 in our community and in our buildings. 

From Oct. 18 through Oct. 31, Rockwood had 51 student positives and 165 student quarantines across the district. An additional 432 students were determined to be close contacts during that time, but because both the positive individual and the student were masked and/or vaccinated, those students have been able to remain in school. This represents a decrease in positive student cases and an increase in student quarantines when compared to the previous two-week period (72 student positives and 133 student quarantines).

Additional data reviewed by Dr. Ricker and his team included Community Health Indicators (regional transmission rates, positive test rates, seven-day average of new daily case rates, 14-day comparison of change in new cases, as well as rate of cases by age group) and vaccination rates by age. 

Rockwood’s top priority is to keep as many students and staff members safe, healthy and learning in an in-school environment as possible. To that end, we are continuing the Rockwood Safe Together mitigation strategies that have served us well, including indoor masking; practicing social distancing and good hand hygiene; maintaining strict cleaning regimens for our facilities; encouraging students and staff members to stay home when they’re not feeling well; and encouraging staff and eligible students to get vaccinated if they haven’t already done so. This week, federal health officials have given final approval for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for children 5-11 years old. The district has a vaccination clinic set up for students in that age group on Nov. 13, with a follow-up clinic on Dec. 4. Information on how to register for those clinics will be sent to parents of elementary students in the coming days. 

In today’s update from the St. Louis County Department of Public Health, Public Information Officer Sara Dayley states, “After an initial spike during the first month of the school year, COVID-19 cases among students in school have steadily declined and are now at their lowest since the school year began. This is due to the tireless efforts of the leaders and staff of the schools in Saint Louis County to implement COVID-19 prevention protocols. DPH is grateful for all that they are doing to keep kids in school safely.”

“Thank you to everyone who has cooperated and supported mitigation efforts in our schools. We should all feel good about how these efforts have successfully kept our numbers relatively low and manageable.” said Dr. Ricker. “Having said that, we understand and appreciate that we are all anxious to return to more familiar routines and settings. The approval of the pediatric dose of the vaccine is great news for Rockwood, and we encourage all parents to work with their health care professionals to determine if the vaccine is right for their children. If you choose to have your child vaccinated, please let us know. When we can demonstrate that the majority of our staff and students are vaccinated and our numbers remain low, we will be in a place where we can consider safely changing our mitigation measures, including our current mask requirement.”

Interim Superintendent Dr. Tim Ricker met this week with district leaders to review and discuss data related to COVID-19 in our buildings. 

From Oct. 4 through Oct. 17, Rockwood had 72 student positives and 131 student quarantines across the district. An additional 391 students were determined to be close contacts during that time, but because both the positive individual and the student were masked and/or vaccinated, those students have been able to remain in school. This represents a decrease in both positive student cases and in student quarantines when compared to the previous two-week period (94 student positives and 262 student quarantines).

Additional data reviewed by Dr. Ricker and his team included Community Health Indicators (regional transmission rates, positive test rates, seven-day average of new daily case rates, 14-day comparison of change in new cases, as well as rate of cases by age group) and vaccination rates by age. 

Rockwood’s top priority is to keep as many students and staff members safe, healthy and learning in an in-school environment as possible. To that end, we are continuing the Rockwood Safe Together mitigation strategies that have served us well, including indoor masking; practicing social distancing and good hand hygiene; maintaining strict cleaning regimens for our facilities; encouraging students and staff members to stay home when they’re not feeling well; and encouraging staff and eligible students to get vaccinated if they haven’t already done so. 

“We remain optimistic and encouraged knowing more of our students will soon be eligible to receive the vaccine,” shared Dr. Ricker. “We have vaccination clinics tentatively scheduled for next month in anticipation of vaccine approval for children ages 5-11 and we encourage all staff and eligible students to get vaccinated. Following the upcoming holidays and extended breaks, I’m hopeful that we will be in a place where we can discuss changes to some of our mitigation measures. We appreciate everyone’s cooperation as we move closer to more familiar routines and settings in our schools.”

Interim Superintendent Dr. Tim Ricker met this week with district leaders to review and discuss data related to COVID-19 in our buildings. 

From Sept. 20 through Oct. 3, Rockwood had 90 student positives and 254 student quarantines across the district. An additional 588 students were determined to be close contacts during that time, but because both the positive individual and the student were masked and/or vaccinated, those students have been able to remain in school. This represents a decrease in positive student cases and an increase in student quarantines when compared to the previous two-week period (91 student positives and 132 student quarantines). 

Additional data reviewed by Dr. Ricker and his team included Community Health Indicators (regional transmission rates, positive test rates, seven-day average of new daily case rates, 14-day comparison of change in new cases, as well as rate of cases by age group) and vaccination rates by age. 

Rockwood’s top priority is to keep as many students and staff members safe, healthy and learning in an in-school environment as possible. To that end, we are continuing the Rockwood Safe Together mitigation strategies that have served us well, including indoor masking; practicing social distancing and good hand hygiene; maintaining strict cleaning regimens for our facilities; encouraging students and staff members to stay home when they’re not feeling well; and encouraging staff and eligible students to get vaccinated if they haven’t already done so. 

This week, we will be sharing information with families about how they can voluntarily disclose their child’s vaccination information. Not only will this assist us with contact tracing efforts, but it will also help us have a measure as to what percentage of our student population is vaccinated. This will be an additional data point to consider when determining possible future adjustments to our mitigation strategies.

“We are cautiously optimistic given the number of positive cases we are seeing in our schools and knowing more of our students will soon be eligible to receive the vaccine,” shared Dr. Ricker. “Having said that, we have some major holidays and extended breaks coming up that we need to get past. We remain hopeful that we are moving closer to more familiar routines and a mask-optional setting in our buildings.” 

Interim Superintendent Dr. Tim Ricker met this week with district leaders and shared information related to COVID-19 in our buildings. He thanked principals for their flexibility and creativity when they have had positive cases in their schools. “You have been precise in your pivots when you have had multiple cases, and it shows,” shared Dr. Ricker. “Your flexibility and adjustments - whether it be at lunch, recess or in the classroom - have proven to be yet another mitigation strategy that is helping to keep students and staff in school.”

Over the past two weeks, as of Sept. 23, Rockwood has had 79 student positives and 127 student quarantines across the district. An additional 459 students were determined to be close contacts during that time but because both the positive individual and the student were masked and/or vaccinated, those students have been able to remain in school. This represents a decrease in both positive student cases and student quarantines when compared to the first two weeks of school (94 student positives and 257 student quarantines). Additional data reviewed by Dr. Ricker and his team includes Community Health Indicators (regional transmission rates, positive test rates, seven-day average of new daily case rates, 14-day comparison of change in new cases, as well as rate of cases by age group) and vaccination rates by age, as well as guidance offered by the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services, the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and the St. Louis County Department of Public Health. 

Rockwood Research, Evaluation and Assessment Director Glenn Hancock shared data this week related to student and staff positives and student and staff quarantines compared to the first weeks of PK-12 in-person learning last school year. Rockwood has fewer positive cases and fewer resulting quarantines over the same period last year. “We should feel good about this data,” shared Dr. Ricker. “Thanks to our mitigation efforts, we are keeping more students and staff in school despite the transmission of the Delta variant in our community. Those numbers appear to be trending down as well, and with word that more students may soon be eligible to receive the vaccine, we should all feel hopeful and encouraged that we may be moving closer to a mask-optional setting.”

Rockwood’s top priority is to keep as many students and staff members safe, healthy and learning in an in-school environment as possible. To that end, we are continuing the Rockwood Safe Together mitigation strategies that have served us well, including indoor masking; practicing social distancing and good hand hygiene; maintaining strict cleaning regimens for our facilities; encouraging students and staff members to stay home when they’re not feeling well; and encouraging staff and eligible students to get vaccinated if they haven’t already done so. This week, we learned that as a nation we are moving closer to having the vaccine approved for children aged 5-11, and Rockwood is making plans to host vaccination clinics in the district once the vaccine is approved for younger students.

Dr. Ricker and district leaders met to discuss data from the first two weeks of school. 

With the COVID-19 pandemic ongoing, our top priority this year is to keep as many students and staff members safe, healthy and learning in an in-school environment as possible. To that end, we are continuing the Rockwood Safe Together mitigation strategies that have served us well, including indoor masking, practicing social distancing and good hand hygiene, maintaining strict cleaning regimens for our facilities and encouraging students and staff members to stay home when they’re not feeling well. 

We are pleased to report that our school communities are doing a good job following these mitigation strategies and, through the first two weeks of school, we experienced 94 student cases and 227 student quarantines across the district. It’s important to note that an additional 248 students were determined to be close contacts, but because both the positive individual and the student were masked, those students have been able to remain in school. While we don’t want to see any cases in our community, we are also cognizant of the reality of the current health situation. We are confident that, as we continue to follow these mitigation strategies – and adjust them as needed – we can provide an in-person learning environment with as few disruptions as possible for our students and staff members.