The Crookston School Board voted back on September 23 to move the School District to Level 3 of the Health and Safety Measures. The change went into effect on October 4, and the data has been being checked every two weeks to see if a difference in the Health and Safety Measures needs to be made.
Level 3 of the health and safety measures that the district has been in since October 4 includes 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.
Crookston Public Schools Superintendent Jeremy Olson explained the district’s process of reviewing the data every two weeks and what information they are monitoring. “We do a review of the data every two weeks, and then that gets sent out to the school board in an email,” said Olson. “We’re looking at how many cases we have in Crookston and Polk County, how many close contacts we have as a school district, and where the cases are located at. The board reviews the information, and if they want to call a special meeting to discuss moving to a different level in the Health & Safety measures, we can do that.”
An email was sent out this past Friday to the School Board with the latest data and information. Olson says the numbers have dropped significantly since moving to level 3, and because of this, you could make an argument to stay at level 3 or move back down to level 2 of the Health and Safety Measures. “The last two weeks, we’ve seen our numbers go down in Polk County, said Olson. “Our goal is to keep our kids in school. Before putting level 3 into place, we had 99 students who had learning interruptions from quarantine. Since putting level 3 into place, we’ve only had nine. The strategy is certainly working; it just comes down to if we should switch levels because of that, and you can make an argument for both sides. We need to be careful not to declare victory too soon, but it’s certainly exciting to see the numbers going down.”
As of this time, no School Board meeting has been called yet to discuss changing levels, but a meeting can be called at any time. Olson talked about the timeline if a special meeting is called. “Generally, the School Board Chair will call the special meeting, but if any board member wants to review the information, they can let the School Board Chair know, and he will call a special meeting,” said Olson. “The reason we allowed any School Board member to say they want to review the data and have a special meeting is that we can then come together as a public body and discuss this matter to figure out what the most appropriate decision is for our kids.”
Any meeting called by a School Board member will take place about three days after the announcement. If a special School Board meeting is called, we will be sure to inform you of that announcement.
