Rockdale Intermediate School closes down 4th-grade classrooms

A Milam County school district will be closing down its 4th-grade classrooms for the next 10 days.

Rockdale ISD will be quarantining its 4th-grade class at Rockdale Intermediate School to slow the spread and deep clean all classrooms. While no other grades or classrooms have reached the same amount of active cases in the school, positive cases in all grades are being monitored daily.

"While I understand that sounds alarming, I wanted to let you know why we made this decision," said Superintendent Denise Monzingo. "The district has created a COVID alert levels chart with green, yellow, orange and red levels. This chart is based on CDC recommended thresholds in schools. Once a school, classroom or grade level reaches the red level of active cases, we believe closing for a few days is the safest option for students and staff."

The school said many of the positive cases are presenting themselves as cold or allergy symptoms, with some students experiencing a fever while others are not.

"We suggest that if any of these symptoms are present, you have your child tested," said Monzingo in a letter to parents. "We have tests available at all campuses and will be offering a vaccine clinic on September 16."

The district said it will release information on this clinic next week, but in the meantime it encourages masking-up, sanitizing, and social distancing. In its COVID Dashboard the school district reports a total of 44 active cases in the district, with 18 positive cases for teachers, staff, and students at the Intermediate level.

"We all need to be diligent about not spreading this virus to others," said Rockdale ISD.