TOWER- Students at Tower-Soudan Elementary have moved to distance learning for five days after two staff members in the building tested positive for COVID-19. The last day the two positive cases were in school was Monday, Oct. 19.
“Between those cases and the number of people who had close contact, we need to be home for 14 days from the last contact with the person who tested positive,” said ISD 2142 Superintendent Reggie Engebritson. “The last day the two positive cases were in school was on Monday, Oct. 19. Two weeks from that day brings us to Tuesday, Nov. 3.”
Teachers were using Monday, Oct. 26 as a planning day, and distance learning will start Oct. 27 and continue through Nov. 2, with in-person learning resuming on Nov. 3.
Teachers and students have been preparing for this possibility since the start of school. Students have worked with their teachers to become familiar with the distance learning format and applications they need to use while learning at home.
The school will not be offering meal delivery or in-school childcare during this time because there were positive cases in the building. The school is being thoroughly cleaned so it will be ready to resume classes on Nov. 3.
The bi-weekly case rate per 10,000 in St. Louis County (excluding the Duluth-area) was at 25.5 as of Oct. 22. This rate is updated every two weeks. The Minnesota Department of Health recommends that schools move to a hybrid teaching model at that level. The hybrid model calls for reducing the number of students in classrooms to half capacity. Tower-Soudan Elementary is small enough that it can meet the guidelines for hybrid learning while still teaching in-person, since classrooms can hold at least twice as many students as are currently doing in-school learning.
The community transmission rates in greater St. Louis County have been rising steadily, moving from 35 percent in mid-September to 53 percent on Oct. 10, which means that over half the current positive cases are linked to transmission in the community, not from contact with an individual who is known to have tested positive. The Tower zip code, as of Oct. 22, has recorded a cumulative 20 COVID-19 cases, and Soudan has recorded between one and five cases.
Vermilion Country School was closed for a period of time earlier this month after a staffer tested positive for COVID-19. No other positive cases have been linked to that exposure.