The Eagle Grove Area School District held a pop-up COVID testing at the Eagle Grove Elementary School on Wednesday, Sept. 23, after a number of positive cases and contact tracing sent approximately 20 percent of elementary students and about 30 percent of high school students into quarantine by mid-week because of exposure. However, Superintendent Jess Toliver is pleased that the quick response to cancelling school on Thursday, Sept. 24, and Friday, Sept. 25, and scheduling virtual classes for all of this week, allowed them to somewhat contain any further spreading of the disease.
Toliver said that on Wednesday morning (Sept. 16), his plan was to have the elementary and middle school stay open and watch the high school very closely.
“Then we had a couple more positives and it wiped out large numbers of elementary kids,” he said.
The decision was made to cancel school those two days because at that point in time, there were around 80 elementary students and approximately 80 more students in the high school who were on quarantine because of having been exposed to a COVID positive person within the school.
“We did not meet the matrix (to shut down the school for more than a week) but we saw a trajectory moving forward… more positives were coming out,” said Sandy McGrath of Wright County Public Health and epidemiologist. “We needed to stop the spread so we cancelled school and scheduled a week of virtual classes (and set up a testing site). While more positives popped up, the good news is, those kids were already in quarantine.”
According to Toliver, from Monday, Sept. 14 through Friday, Sept. 25, there were roughly 10 staff members and around five students district-wide that received positive COVID results – this includes test results from the approximate 200 people who were tested during the pop-up on Sept. 23.
There has been some question as to how teachers and staff quarantine has worked. Toliver explained that teachers and all school staff are considered essential employees, so when you look at exposure, you’re looking at how long they were near a COVID positive person and if they go into quarantine. If they are not showing symptoms and have received a negative test, they can continue to teach.
“Our theory has always been, we keep them out until we get them tested and they get a negative result,” explained Toliver.
Once they have the negative test, they can come back to the school…unless they are still showing symptoms.
“We started running out of staff at the end of the week of Sept. 14,” said Toliver
For those concerned that this week of virtual schooling will not count towards required hours by the Governor, they will. Because Eagle Grove has gone back in-person full time, they can go a full week with virtual classes without applying for a waiver because they still meet the state-mandated 50% in-person class time. If the school sees flair-ups, they could apply for a two-week waiver… or they can simply go another week (one) virtually without a waiver.
However, Toliver noted that the Thursday and Friday they took off where there were no classes at all, those two days will have to be made up. They are working towards a plan to make up those hours and information will be released when available.
“What we found out is that each positive person takes out about 20 people,” said Toliver. “And it adds up quick and multiplies fast…that’s why we encourage if you’re quarantined, stay away from all people…. don’t even hang out with other quarantined people because if they end up eventually testing positive, your quarantine starts all over again.”
That is the best way not to expose or spread COVID.
“(A mix of virtual and in-person classes) is probably going to happen throughout the school year,” said McGrath about trying to control the spread of the virus in the school as best as possible. “When we have a flare-up we will hunker down (have virtual classes), let it settle, and then go back to in-person classes again.”
She added that this is true
for the general communities of Wright County as well. When we see more positive cases, we all need to be extra vigilant about wearing our masks out in public and avoiding large gatherings, and just staying home when possible to limit the risk of exposure and keep the virus at bay.
“It’s going to take everyone working together to avoid risky behaviors. Our main goal is to keep the communities safe and prevent illness,” said McGrath.
She is hopeful that new guidelines put out just this week by Governor Kim Reynolds and the Iowa Department of Public Health will help keep more kids in school (see grey box). She noted that after looking at the data, cases show the importance of wearing a mask. Quarantine guidelines have changed with this announcement which is why McGrath stresses the importance of wearing a mask when out in public.
“It’s not a hard concept… wear your facemask, social distance…this will give us less disruption in our schools,” she said.
Barring any unforeseen outbreaks in the community this week, Toliver and McGrath agree that students can return to the classroom on Tuesday, Oct. 6 (Monday is a prescheduled professional development day so there already were no classes scheduled for the students).
Upon the restart of school, teachers and all staff will have to be symptom-free, wear both a mask and a shield, temps will be taken when they come in and protocol questions will have to be answered. Any symptoms, they go home and they will have to be tested.
Middle School sports
Because there were no COVID positive or quarantined students in the middle school, the district has decided to let these students begin practicing again this week which started on Monday. However, any scheduled games with opposing towns will not be played just for precautionary measures.
“By not participating outside of our town, you can control the spread in our own community and theirs,” Toliver added.
Quarantine reminder
If you receive a positive test result, you need to quarantine for 10 days from being diagnosed. If you test negative, you need to quarantine for 14 days from exposure. If you have already tested positive for COVID within the last three months and are recovered, you are not mandated to quarantine after exposure…as long as it has not been more than three months.
Most students who are currently quarantined will be released to turn back to school October 4 – 6 which puts the majority of students back in school when in-person classes are offered again.
