Crookston School District Superintendent Jeremy Olson is warning district families to prepare for a short duration of distance learning in the near future. For his letter to district residents is below –
Parents/Guardians:
The intention of this communication is to inform you about the total number of in-school positive cases of COVID 19 to date since the beginning of the school year and to let you know that parents and families must be prepared for a short duration distance learning period in the near future.
Our 14-day Polk County case rate moved to 113.32 last week. This indicates extensive community spread within our community. While I know that we communicated a framework from the Governor earlier this year, we are being encouraged to use local data to make decisions on school rather than just the county case rate. Based on the current local school-based data, we have not experienced the massive disruptions we had expected considering the current case rate and therefore have been able to stay in our original model. I believe much of this is due to the mitigation strategies that are in place in our schools along with the great support that we have had from families in carrying out these mitigation strategies.
This 14-day case number along with the concerns about being fully staffed due to staff being unable to work due to close contacts or quarantine is a very real concern and necessitates the possibility that we may have to, in the near future, put in place a 14-day or more distance learning period. What we have experienced currently does not necessitate a model change; however, I want everyone to be prepared in case we have to use this measure. I believe that we are extremely close to having to use a short-term distance learning period and my advice would be to start planning now if you have not already done so. We will attempt to give you adequate notice, however, please be prepared that it could be extremely short notice. We are asking parents to plan out what they would do if a school within the district or the entire district needed to enter a short-term distance learning period.
Notifications of Positive Cases: We continue to track our positive COVID-19 cases by school building. I do want to clarify that these are positive cases as defined by MDH which means that a person was in a school during the infectious period. Students or staff that are not in school during their infectious period are not counted per MDH reporting definitions.
