By Jon King / jking@whmi.com


A reported COVID outbreak has resulted in a mask mandate at a local elementary school.

According to a letter sent out Friday by Creekside Elementary School Principal Stephanie Moore-Way, the Livingston County Health Department has identified “multiple related positive COVID-19 cases at Creekside…and thus considered to be the site of an outbreak.”

Moore-Way said that the students and staff who were notified and “excluded from school” met the definition of a close contact by both Hartland Consolidated Schools and the Livingston County Health Department (LCHD).

As a result, Moore-Way says that all junior kindergarten through grade four students and staff will be required to wear masks at school from November 1st through November 12th.

In addition, the Alternate Quarantine procedure is suspended due to LCHD rules and those students will transition to the Standard Quarantine. Those affected students who wish to participate must stay home, except to seek medical care, for the first five days. They can then be tested on Days 6 & 7 for COVID-19 by a provider with either a PCR or antigen test. However, at-home tests will not be accepted.

If by Days 8, 9 or 10 a negative test result has been received and transmitted to the district, the student can return to school while wearing a mask for the remainder of their quarantine.

Moore-Way concluded that while “this news is unsettling, please know that we are diligently working to maintain in-person schooling. Our priority is to educate students in a safe learning environment.”

The notification followed an update last week from Superintendent Chuck Hughes that 1,055 students throughout the district, roughly 20% of the student body, had been quarantined in the previous two weeks.