When I last reported on June 1, we were dealing with our lowest numbers of the school year and all of the indicated numbers continued to drop until early July. Everyone is now well aware of the Delta variant that is now spreading throughout the country and our state. Last Thursday (8/12) we had our first Superintendent Stearns County Public Health meeting to learn about our current status and discuss current guidance to keep our students and staff safe and most importantly keep our students in school.
As of right now, the greatest frustration is that we are not receiving any specific guidance from either the Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) or the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH). At this time it is difficult to project what impact the Delta variant will have on our student and staff population. State Departments of Health are reporting high rates in some of the southern states. We are fortunate to be in Minnesota where we have higher vaccination rates than most of these states.
Currently, we are still recommending that all students and staff wear masks when we open up school this fall. We not only want to open up school as normal as possible but we want to keep our students in school. We will need to continue to monitor the numbers the closer we get to the start of school to determine if there need to be adjustments in our plan. Stearns County Public Health will have numbers by county next week.
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