Within the past two weeks, Scott County has seen an increase in COVID-19 cases. With a majority of PV students doing hybrid school, the question arises: how will this spike affect the learning model?
Since August, Scott County’s case percentages have been steadily increasing from 1,563 to 4,500 as of Oct 25.
Scott County’s COVID-19 cases are up to 10% this week. Right now, the county is averaging 64 daily cases. Although this is not as high as other counties in Iowa, students and parents are still worried about how it will affect hybrid school. As of now, Scott County is not at a high enough rate to implement remote learning.
PV Superintendent Brian Strusz commented on the district’s current plan. “A county that has a 14 day running average positivity rate above 20% is considered substantially uncontrolled,” Strusz stated. “At that point, the state and local education and public health officials would work closely together to make decisions on school operations. Most likely this would result in a school building or the district operating in 100% remote learning for a time period up to 14 days.”
Senior Louie Conn is worried about how this year will continue. “The first few weeks of school teachers were very adamant about sanitizing students’ hands before they walk into a classroom,” Conn shared. “Now, some days I will walk into a class and there is not a single bottle of hand sanitizer in sight.”
As of now, the district has been able to keep the community spread of COVID-19 out of schools. All thanks to staff and students keeping safe by covering their face, washing their hands and social distancing.
However, further concerns have been brought up with flu season just around the corner. “We need to stay vigilant to these practices especially as we enter flu season, people being indoors more and with the increased number of cases in our community.” Strusz added.
If students and staff continue to do their job by keeping the school clean and social distancing, the 2020-2021 school year administration believes that the school year can continue in-person.
