Center Point - Urbana Community School

District Office
Matt Berninghaus
Superintendent

11/13/2020

CPU Families

Linn County Public Health (LCPH) announced on Thursday, November 12th that they were modifying their definition of
close contact with someone who had tested positive for COVID-19.

The new guidance from LCPH is as follows:

 Being within 6 feet of someone who has COVID-19 for a total of 15 minutes or more in a 24 hour period,
starting from 2 days before illness onset or testing.
 Living in the same household as a person diagnosed with COVID-19.
 Direct physical contact with the person (hugged or kissed them)
 Being sneezed, coughed, or somehow got respiratory droplets on you from a COVID-19 infected individual.
 Close contact includes all of the above, regardless of mask use.

Unfortunately the newly updated LCPH guidance does not align with the Iowa Department of Public Health’s (IDPH)
guidance. The 2 main differences are:
1. The definition of close contact would change from 15 continuous minutes of contact, to a total of 15 minutes in a
24 hour period of time
2. Close contact would be identified regardless of mask use
This is somewhat problematic for the Center Point-Urbana School District as portions of our district are in Linn and
Benton Counties. Furthermore, the Benton County Department of Public Health (BCPH), and all other Iowa Counties are
continuing to utilize IDPH’s guidance with regards to defining “close contact”. A unified approach across our state
regarding the definition of what is considered “close contact” assures us that all students, staff members, and families are
held to the same standard regardless of where we live. Moving forward, CPU will continue to use the IDPH’s definition
of close contact. The CPU School Board will discuss this matter further during the regular November board meeting
which is scheduled for Wednesday, November 18th.

In an effort to provide up-to-date information to our families we have developed a CPU COVID-19 dashboard. This
dashboard will be updated on a daily basis and will include the district wide number of positive COVID-19 cases for
students and staff. According to the Iowa Department of Public Health, the exact number of positive COVID-19 cases
may not be reported until the number exceeds 6. If our current number is less than 6 this data will be entered as “<6”.
The dashboard is accessible via the main CPU webpage by clicking the COVID-19 Dashboard link.

Thank you,

Matt Berninghaus
Superintendent

Committed to Excellence
Center Point - Urbana Schools Contact Mailing Address
145 Iowa St Phone: 319-849-1102 PO Box 296
Center Point, IA 52213 Fax: 319-849-2312 Center Point, IA 52213