Superintendent Update 11/2/2020
Although we did not want to have to go back to distance learning, at least we made it to today for our first day in distance learning with our grades 6-12. Having these first two months with students in the building at least for hybrid bought some very valuable time to get our technology in place for a different style of distance learning than we had in place last spring. Hopefully, this will also buy us some time to continue in our current model in the elementary for at least a couple of more weeks. Our current number in Stearns County is 65.68. Please recall that we also look at our numbers within our building to determine the safety of our students and staff. As communicated out in our Incident Command Team last Friday, we currently had 1 staff member and 1 student that had tested positive last week. However, we have a number of staff and students that are out because they are quarantined because of direct contact with someone who was positive.
The projection for next week is for the number to increase to around 80. Many of you by now will easily have known someone that has tested positive for COVID-19. Many others have had the symptoms and just not been tested. Stearns County Public health has recently stated there is now a “substantial community spread” of the virus. Nothing has changed in their recommendations to slow the spread, wear a mask, socially distance, stay home when you're sick, wash your hands with soap and water for at least 20 seconds.
I will be working with both county and state officials to keep our elementary school in the current hybrid model as long as possible. However, as you can see with the current and projected numbers, this will be increasingly difficult to maintain. We know that distance learning is difficult at any grade level. It is just more difficult at the elementary level.
I can assure you that we will, as stated earlier, continue to improve on our educational delivery model in distance learning. Although I truly feel we were more effective than the average district last spring, we have vastly improved our technology, training of our staff in new methodologies and have had time to better prepare our students. It will still not be better than in-person, nothing can replace the relationship between teachers and their students. We are very hopeful that we will be back to that model sometime in the future. Until then, thank you for your patience as we work together through this very difficult time.
If you have any questions or concerns do not hesitate to contact me or any of the building principals.
Greg Winter, Superintendent: gwinter@isd740.org
Chad Doetkott, High School Principal: cdoetkott@isd740.org
Robert Anderson, Middle School Principal: randerson@isd740.org
Terryl Pearson, Elementary School Principal: tpearson@isd740.org