An Important Message for Midland Public Schools Students, Staff and Families:

A letter I received this week from Elizabeth Hertel, Director of the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) and State Superintendent Dr. Michael Rice from the Michigan Department of Education (MDE) to Michigan Superintendents began with these sentences,

"As we start the year 2022, it is a great opportunity to reinforce actions that can help alleviate the risks associated with this COVID-19 pandemic—especially in anticipation of the highly transmissible Omicron variant. The goal of implementing prevention measures is to protect students, teachers, and staff, and maintain in-person learning."

Midland Public Schools has unequivocally stated that in-school instruction with our dedicated teachers, administrators and support staff is best for MPS student learning. MPS continues our commitment to quality face-to-face (F2F) instruction when we return from the holiday break on Monday (January 3), however, this will take all of us working together especially with the current COVID surge.

The letter from MDHHS & MDE went on to provide their expert guidance for students and staff to return to F2F learning following the holiday break. These recommendations call for layering multiple prevention strategies, such as universal masking and setting limitations on gathering capacities.

"The CDC and Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) recommends universal indoor masking for all teachers, staff, students, and visitors (age 2 and older), regardless of vaccination status."

In order to continue uninterrupted in-school instruction for our students when we return to school on Monday, Midland Public Schools strongly urges families to send their child(ren) to school with a mask and encourage their student to wear their mask during the school day. Mask use has been proven to substantially reduce transmission in school settings and greatly assist as an additional layer in multiple prevention strategies.

MPS has testing protocols in place and will review these protocols with our county health officials.

MPS will also review protocols such as lunch procedures, hallway passing times, capacity limits at co- and extra-curricular activities over the next few days.

The MDHHS/MDE letter's closing paragraph states,

"Wearing masks, washing hands often, maintaining social distance wherever possible, and getting staff and students vaccinated all remain important safety measures. All prevention strategies provide some level of protection, and layered strategies implemented at the same time provide the greatest level of protection."

We encourage all students, staff and families to consider masking as well as rolling up your sleeve for the COVID vaccination/booster to assist Midland PS in continuing to provide a safe in-school instructional environment during the COVID twists and turns in which we continue to navigate.

Working together, let's make 2022 a Safe, Healthy and Happy New Year for our children!

Michael E. Sharrow

Superintendent of Schools