Meskwaki Settlement School Parent Return to Learn Update:
Good afternoon. I hope this message finds you and yours well. Today’s message is meant to inform you of our current thinking and how we are going about the decision making process. Across the state numbers have crept above the 20% positivity rate. Tama County unfortunately is no different. As the community numbers rise, our school numbers continue to stay very low. Our absenteeism rate for total student illnesses has remained below the 10% threshold. At last count, we had 2% of our students out ill for COVID, we’ve had one possible exposure, and we’ve had no defined school transmissions. We continue to receive regular communications with the Tama County Health Department and the Meskwaki Clinic.
Although we continue to find ourselves surrounded by uncertainty, please know we are continuing to follow the best guidance for schools. There is a misconception out there that once communities crossed over the 20% positivity rate schools would automatically need to go to 100% virtual instruction. The way the state plan is written, it allows flexibility for schools to respond based on their individual data and the level at which the school is being directly affected by covid illnesses. As a result, very few schools have had to go 100% virtual and almost no hybrid schools have made the transition. I know the increasing numbers in the community are concerning, but thankfully our mitigation efforts are being successful.
As we consider 100% virtual, we must consider a couple of things. The school’s numbers are staying down while the community numbers are increasing. Having kids out of school will lead to more kids in the community which could lead to additional increases in the community numbers. As one of the Tama County Health Department leaders communicated, “These new positive Covid 19 cases are all from community spread, NOT long term care residents. When performing our interviews, people continue to dine out, have parties, weddings, large group gatherings, and sleepovers. The close contacts are rarely from a school setting,” With that said, the school appears to be a safe place with structure for our youth.
100% Virtual instruction remains an option, but unfortunately it appears to be our last educationally beneficial option. Currently, we have a high number of students who are only completing the educational lessons and work when they are in the building. Students are treating the non-attendance days as vacation days and not completing their work on the virtual days. This unfortunately is consistent with how the virtual days went last Spring. The instructional progress on the virtual days is a significant concern for many of our teachers. Additionally, a decision to go 100% online would mean a cancellation of all school athletics during that time. Given the increasing covid numbers, it is logical to assume if we make the decision to go to 100% virtual, we will probably stay that way for a while.
Given this information, I believe our efforts at this time are best spent ensuring our staff and students follow our current mitigation steps of wearing masks, 6 feet of distance, limited student movement, constant use of sanitizer and other strategies we know help prevent the spread of COVID-19 and other illnesses. Nonetheless, since we have crossed that 20% threshold with our county positivity rate, the responsible course of action is to begin putting the pieces together in the event a change becomes necessary. Although at this time we are not planning to make changes to our learning model, it would be appropriate for you, as educators, parents, and community members to begin thinking about what this might mean for you to create contingency plans. If our internal data begins to shift and we see evidence of spread in the school setting, or high absenteeism rates among students and staff, then we will need to reevaluate the situation and make some adjustments. This evaluation will be week to week and day to day.
For your planning, if we move to 100% virtual, all faculty and staff will continue to report to their normal work station and work hours and our food service program will continue to operate much the same as it did over the summer.
These are definitely tough times but we will get through them. Have a great day, and please help us by making sure you are following the mitigation protocols outside of the school setting.
As a reminder, we post a Covid “data dashboard” as a weekly update locally regarding the impact of Covid on the school system, and you can find this on the MSS website. http://msswarriors.org/students-parents/covid-19-data-dashboard/