The district has recently been taking measures to lower COVID cases after the CDC predicted a rise in the US due to the delta variant. Out of 4,300 students in the district, 21 students and 10 staff members have tested positive.

“We feel like we are in good shape with [the number of cases] since we are in working on mitigating and eliminating as much as possible,” Principal Jeremy Chilek said. “Students need to just continue to do what they normally would, which is monitoring themselves every moment, and make sure they don’t have any symptoms.”

The school district has been doing extensive cleaning with products approved by the EPA. Hand sanitizers and the optional use of masks have helped the district too. Students, teachers, or staff members infected with COVID have to stay home for 10 days, and work areas receive a deep sanitary cleaning. Any students who are quarantined have the ability to stay up-to-date with their school work through the use of Canvas. 

“If they just don’t feel good, they need to do what they normally do when they don’t feel good, so just be aware of self-monitoring and make sure they are taking care of themselves,” Chilek said. “They need to mitigate [COVID] as much as they can by checking who they come across or how close they associate with other students during the day.”

The Delta variant is the most common form of Covid in the area and has affected students differently. Aaralyn Nilson started getting symptoms on August 11 during her tennis practice. She coughed regularly and had a tight chest with difficulty breathing.

“COVID wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be, and I feel like I got it easy,” Nilson said. “I was miserable, but things really could’ve been worse for me. My symptoms were manageable.”

For information about LISD’s Covid plan, consult the official Covid-19 document.