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Lunenburg County Board of Education

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January 18, 2022

To: Lunenburg County Public Schools Staff & Parents

From: Charles Berkley, Superintendent

RE: Virtual Learning and Governor Youngkin’s Order on Masks

First and foremost, thanks to each of you for your continued support of LCPS during such unprecedented times. Our parents, students, and staff are definitely to be commended for continuing to press forward.

The Omicron variant is spreading rapidly in Lunenburg County as well as the State of Virginia. We have been closely monitoring the number of positive COVID cases and isolations/quarantines in each individual school and throughout the school district as a whole daily. Our number of cases has increased, making it difficult to staff our schools. Based on the numbers of the past few days of school last week and over the weekend, we feel it is best for the health and safety of all students and employees for the entire district to move to virtual learning for the next 3 days starting January 19th thru 21st. We made the decision to operate virtually to allow individuals time to recover from illness and hopefully curtail the spread of COVID in our buildings and transporting students to school.

Starting tomorrow all lessons will be on CANVAS and students will be able to complete their work on their device/tablet unless they have received other directives from their teacher.  For those without internet at home, there are HOTSPOTS  throughout the county and at the parking lots of our schools and the School Board office where internet access is available. We will make an announcement on Sunday, January 23rd regarding the status of schools reopening on Monday, January 24th. Meals will be made available at Central High School and Kenbridge Elementary Schools for pick-up for your child during the hours of 12 -3 pm each school day this week.

Secondly, you may have heard that on Saturday, Governor Youngkin issued an Executive Order that says that parents may choose whether their child wears a mask at school or not. We know that there are many opinions among our families about this new order. Please know that this order goes into effect on January 24th however Lunenburg County students will still be required to wear masks on school buses and in the schools until our school board meets and makes a decision on this order.

The safety of our students and staff will be our first priority. LCPS will continue with mitigation strategies that we currently have in place until further clarification and guidance comes from the Governor, VDH, VDOE, and all other collaborating agencies.  LCPS will continue to give you updated information as it becomes available.  Thank you all for your cooperation, support, and patience as we continue to adjust to the impacts of the pandemic.