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Serving Northern St. Louis County, Minnesota

Ely schools move to distance learning

Plan likely to remain in place through December

Keith Vandervort
Posted 11/24/20

ELY – With the coronavirus pandemic raging through the nation, state, county, and particularly Ely, ISD 696 students will be returning to distance-learning protocols after the Thanksgiving …

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Ely schools move to distance learning

Plan likely to remain in place through December

Posted

ELY – With the coronavirus pandemic raging through the nation, state, county, and particularly Ely, ISD 696 students will be returning to distance-learning protocols after the Thanksgiving break and will remain at home at least through the end of December.
That recommendation by school district administrators was announced at the Nov. 19 meeting of the Ely Safe Learning Plan Advisory Council. The learning plan transition was met with abundant approval by the members of the advisory council as COVID-19 continues to spread unabated.
As many as 63 students in the Ely school district, and at least seven teachers, were reported to be in quarantine as of Nov. 19, according to Superintendent Erik Erie. He also reported to advisory council members that the active positive case rate in the school community increased to four on Nov. 19. The cumulative positive case rate is now at 11 since the beginning of the school year.
All school activities, including sports, are also paused for at least four weeks.
Erie reported the northern St. Louis County dashboard data showed a positive case rate of 58.2 per 10,000 people, a slight decrease from 60.1 reported the prior week. However, central St. Louis County positive case dashboard exploded from 41.6 to 72.92 in a week. All schools in St Louis County showed a positive COVID-19 case rate increase from 50.69 to 91.1.
“Right now, we are not seeing transmission between faculty, staff, and students, however, we do have a number (of students) in quarantine,” Erie said.
He referenced the recent announcement by Gov. Walz in implementing a four-week pause in many activities around the state. “We had some plans related to (school) activities tentatively in place before the Governor made his announcement, which are a little more restrictive than what we were envisioning, but there it is,” he said.
Erie also indicated that Ely’s junior high volleyball season ended immediately due to a COVID concern.
The Ely superintendent reported that many other area and regional schools are also transitioning to distance learning at various times, some like Rock Ridge schools have no plan in place for returning to in-person learning. “Grand Rapids and Hibbing (schools) are on a two-week distance learning, and are due to come back Dec. 4, but according to our sources, they are re-evaluating that, and that could change,” Erie said.
Ely K-5 Principal Anne Oelke added that Chisholm schools are remaining in distance-learning until the end of their second quarter, Feb. 1, 2021.
“Our neighboring school at Northeast Range, and ISD 2142, is planning to stay with in-person (learning),” Erie said. “Cherry school was shut down for two weeks and I think they are back now.”
ISD 696 administrators also consulted with Aubrey Hoover of the St. Louis County Public Health Department on Nov. 19. “Next week, for us in northern St. Louis County, they expect the (positive case rate data) to go down or hover at about the high 50s or 60,” Erie said. “They don’t expect a lot of change for us. They cannot say that for the whole county as they expect an upward trend in the county and state as a whole.”
Oelke added, “Their projection for the mid-central area (of St. Louis County) was going to be in the high 80s, but even today (Nov. 19), they are already changing their projection to be in the 100s. Another thing I took away was that (COVID) was not going to slow down right now.”
Megan Anderson, 6-12 Principal, re-iterated the prediction. “This is not slowing down. It will continue to increase through the holidays.”
ISD administrators were set to meet virtually with Minnesota Department of Health officials on Monday, Nov. 23, and to take their guidance as they finalize plans for ISD 696 to transition to distance learning right after the Thanksgiving break on Monday, Nov.30.
Erie also reported that officials from both Ely-Bloomenson Community Hospital and Essentia Ely Clinic said “they are much busier than they have been and they confirmed that there is an increase in people there with COVID-related health issues.”
Erie added, “They don’t see that this trend is going to subside. They feel that this (trend) is probably going to increase, hopefully not, but they are seeing an upward trend.”
ISD administrators discussed their distance-learning plan recommendations with the advisory council members and highlighted the need for planning time for staff and teachers to prepare for the transition. The learning plan was set to be finalized on Monday, Nov. 23, following the MDH consultation. School board members were to be updated on the transition at their study session on Nov. 23.
The transition was planned to be implemented beginning on Monday, Nov. 30, and would run through the end of December. A return date for in-person learning for students is not finalized. “We would have no contact days, beginning Nov. 30,” Oelke said, “including no child care, no students, and only pure planning so we get this 100-percent right.”
Erie added that the transition to distance learning will also provide an opportunity for custodial staff to complete “significant deep cleaning” in the school buildings.
“The hope is to always make sure that we get students back here in school, because we know that parents want their children here in school. We get that. We understand that. We know that this is hard. We are going to do everything we can to make sure we are able to do that,” he said.