January 14, 2022

Dear Parents and Staff,
In keeping with Santa Maria ISD’s practices to respond to COVID-19, we are notifying all student families and staff that two students from Santa Maria TGE School were notified to have COVID-19 on Friday, January 14, 2022 and were last present in school on Wednesday, January 12, 2022. Due to privacy requirements, we will not be releasing the names of the students or details that may identify them.
Santa Maria ISD is following the guidelines and recommendations from the Center for Disease Control (CDC), Texas Education Agency (TEA), and state and local health officials. Santa Maria ISD is working closely with the Cameron County Health Department on this matter. Cameron County Health Department along with SMISD nurse, Candy Kafka, have begun the case investigations and will continue to contact any individuals determined to be in close contact with the affected students. Any student and staff member that came into close contact with the affected students will be directly contacted by Cameron County Health Department or Nurse Kafka. Those that were in close contact will remain off campus for up to 10 days to ensure they do not have the virus, so that there will not be any further spread.

We also ask that you, as always, watch for symptoms of COVID-19.

Any of the following symptoms indicate a possible COVID-19 infection:
-Temperature of 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit or higher when taken by mouth;
-Sore throat;
-New uncontrolled cough that causes difficulty breathing (or, for students with a chronic allergic/asthmatic cough, a change in their cough from baseline);
-Diarrhea, vomiting, or abdominal pain; or
-New onset of severe headache, especially with a fever

If you begin experiencing any of these symptoms in a way that is not typical, we encourage you to contact your physician. We encourage anyone in the Santa Maria ISD community who is lab-confirmed to have COVID-19 to please notify our school by contacting Ms. Candy Kafka, SMISD nurse, at
(956) 566-5348 or email her at candykafka@smisd.net .

Sincerely,
Martin Cuellar
Superintendent of Schools

Notice PDF (English)
Notice PDF (Spanish)