The Crookston Public School District began level 3 of their health and safety measures on October 4. They will review the data again on Monday, October 18, to see if changes to health and safety measures will need to occur.
During this time, Crookston Public School District nurse Stacey Grunewald says that the students have adapted well to the change. “I would say over at Highland, it has been going remarkably well,” said Grunewald. “Since we had to mask last year, I think it’s carried over well with the students into this year, and it doesn’t appear to phase them. It’s already helping mitigate some issues that we had before at Highland, and we haven’t had to quarantine as many people because students are wearing their masks correctly.”
Level 3 of the health and safety measures included masking for all students and staff at the elementary level and social distancing of three feet at the High School. Masking is also required on school buses during transportation.
Decisions will be based on the data from Polk County and within Crookston, and Grunewald says Polk County Public Health has done a tremendous job keeping the community informed, and the numbers being reported are accurate. “They are so important to the community, and we base all of our decisions off of facts and numbers,” said Grunewald. “I work very closely with them to make sure our numbers are accurate and are being reported to the state correctly. It gives us a nice timeline and a nice look at where we’re going.”
The biggest goal for the School District continues to be preserving in-person instruction for all students. While it is too early to tell if cases are truly going down from masking, more in-person instruction has been able to occur since the change was made, according to Grunewald.
However, she says she still has more concerns about handling COVID-19 this year than last year because people are getting tired of dealing with it. “Last year, it was new, and people were aware and on edge with it,” said Grunewald. “This year, it seems people are getting a little tired about it and having to mask. I don’t blame them because I am tired of it as well, but at the same time, we have this new emerging variant we need to be aware of because it is causing problems. We need to be mindful of the numbers and understand this is still a problem.”
It is still uncertain when the health and safety measures will be changed. “I think will just continue to watch the numbers and see what happens,” said Grunewald. “Will continue to evaluate the numbers and work with Sarah Reese at Polk County Public Health and let the data dictate what we keep doing.”
Again, this coming Monday, October 18, the District will review the data and decide to stay at level 3 of the health and safety measures or move back down to level 2. There is a possibility of moving up to level 4, which would include masking at all levels; however, that doesn’t seem likely at this time.
For the entire conversation with Stacey Grunewald, you can tune in to KROX Saturday morning at 8:35 for the Focus on Education program. You can listen on 105.7 FM, 1260 AM, or by clicking “Listen Live” at the top of this page.
