On Friday, February 25, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued new guidance for COVID-19 Community Levels. Levels can be low, medium, or high and are determined by looking at hospital beds being used, hospital admissions, and the total number of new COVID-19 cases in an area. The CDC further recommends that masks can be optional in school settings, unless in an area of high transmission. Currently, the Grayslake High School community is in an area of low transmission.

Furthermore, Governor Pritzker officially removed the mask mandate for schools on February 25, 2022. As such, students and staff will be encouraged but not required to wear a mask in D127 school buildings and on school buses.

We are confident that we will be able to maintain a high level of protection against the virus spreading within our buildings for a number of reasons:

• Our vaccination numbers among staff are extremely high at 96%

• Our vaccination numbers among students are also quite high, at 75%

• We will still employ the same level of cleaning, disinfection, and air quality

• Our infection rates in the school have returned to single digits of students and staff following the Omricon surge

• Many staff and students have increased immunity as a result of building antibodies as a result of the Omricon surge

• New data on the effectiveness of masks is very promising. A new CDC study found that consistently wearing a comfortable, well-fitting face mask in indoor public settings protects greatly against the acquisition of COVID infection. Most protective was an N95 or a KN95 mask, which lowered the odds of testing positive by 83%

• Masks have been optional in D127 schools since February 10, and we have not experienced a significant increase of infections reported to the district

Although this has been a challenging and unsettling school year, we believe strongly that our mitigation measures, level of vaccination, and the respectful behavior on the part of our staff and students can keep infections down and learning in-person.