Governor Justice,

I’d like to start by saying you are in a position of extreme stress and uncertainty. I don’t think anyone can envy your job right now during these unprecedented and uncertain times. 
We are, however, coming upon the coldest part of the year where illnesses in a non-pandemic year are already an issue. You know as well as we do that we’ve already lost school staff and community members to covid. Within the school system, we are doing our very best to keep things as safe as possible and take care of our students. Our students in turn have worked hard to do their part in that as well. 
We have more cases now than ever before in our state, and seem to be breaking new records every day regarding cases. On behalf of concerned school staff, families, students, healthcare workers, and communities, we’re asking that you revert back to using the infection rate to determine closures. We have counties with infection rates in the 40s, 50s, and higher. Yet despite these numbers, positivity rates often put us back into buildings together,  unnecessarily increasing risk of exposure to a vulnerable population. 
You helped get us some tools to assist with remote learning, including personal devices for each student and expansion of WiFi. We ask that we be able to utilize these resources to prevent further spread in the school setting when our infection rates put us in the red.

Thank you for your time and consideration.