It might have been longer than many parents and school district staff thought it would take, but a Crookston School District teacher has tested positive for COVID-19. KROX learned it was a teacher, but Superintendent Jeremy Olson wouldn’t confirm or deny due to health privacy concerns.
In an email to KROX, Crookston School District Superintendent Jeremy Olson said, “Crookston Public Schools did have a positive case of COVID 19 today. We worked with Public Health and followed our procedures.”
KROX talked with Olson about what the district has done since learning about the positive case. “We followed our process and procedure that we established this summer along with Polk County Public Health,” said Olson. “Polk County Public Health came in to do a contact investigation where any close contacts are identified to make sure everyone is safe. We also have to report with the Minnesota Department of Health.”
The close contact reporting is to make sure anybody that had close contact with the positive case stays away from the school until they are cleared to return to keep everybody safe. “Polk County Public Health identifies the close contact and the school district is actually the one that makes the notification phone call. We are always under Polk County Public Health’s direction.”
Superintendent Olson said they will follow the procedures moving forward. “We will try to social distance, mask-wearing, just the standard procedures that we implemented, those will continue,” said Olson. “We are always evaluating what things we can do better and try to figure out a better way to do things. The procedures we put in place are good and certainly, it is helping mitigate the spread of COVID-19.”
Superintendent Olson said he wasn’t going to comment on how many people have had close contact with the positive case, but KROX has learned it was minimal.
Olson added that he is sending an email to families to inform them of the positive test.
