Name: State says students at Iowa elementary school must return to in-person classes by Friday
Brand: desmoinesregister.com
SKU: desmoinesregister-com-138
Availability: OnlineOnly

critic

State says students at Iowa elementary school must return to in-person classes by Friday

preview

Des Moines RegisterView CommentsThe Iowa Department of Education says students at Urbandale's Rolling Green Elementary School must return to in-person classes by Friday.The state denied the district's request to continue holding classes online at the elementary school, according to a letter sent to parents Monday by Urbandale Superintendent Steve Bass.The decision places Urbandale in "the uncomfortable position" of either bringing students back for in-person classes&nbsp;or "opposing the governor's orders and possibly state law," Bass wrote.&nbsp;"The board is exploring all possibilities," school board member Stacy Andersen said Monday afternoon.&nbsp;It&nbsp;discussed the possibility of ignoring the state's mandate at its last meeting. The board&nbsp;is&nbsp;scheduled to raise the issue again Monday night.&nbsp;Any decision Urbandale makes will be watched closely by&nbsp;other school districts hoping start the year online. Des Moines, Ames and Iowa City school district have all indicated the plan to ask the to hold online classes.&nbsp;"I&nbsp;think that it may be appropriate for rural districts to reopen," Andersen said. "I don't think it's appropriate for Polk County. I believe that the governor is negligent in her proclamation and it is not oriented on family safety."Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds announced July 17 that all Iowa schools are required&nbsp;to hold&nbsp;at least 50% of their core academic instruction in person.Rolling Green, which operates on a year-round calendar, was previously granted a waiver to begin the school year with online classes. It began The school's waiver ends Thursday."I think there's a lot up in the air," Urbandale board member Judy Downs said. "There's a lot of contradictions and a lot of changes and that has forced us to have conversations at the board level to weigh what's best for the health and safety of our community against the ever-changing goal posts that the state is setting up."&nbsp;Last week, on when schools will be allowed to move classes online this fall. Under the state's rules, schools must have a positive coronavirus test&nbsp;rate of at least 15% in the&nbsp;county where they are located and&nbsp;at least 10% absenteeism among students before they can receive a state waiver&nbsp;to transition&nbsp;to full&nbsp;online learning.The positive test rate was 8% in Polk County and 7.1% in Dallas County over the past 14 days, according to state data. The Urbandale school district is located in both counties.Downs said the governor's latest announcement contradicts earlier guidance&nbsp;from the state that school districts work with local health departments to decide when students should return to buildings.&nbsp;"Our administration has been working very closely with the county probably every other day during this process," she said.&nbsp;According to Urbandale school officials, the Polk County Health Department advised the district to apply for the waiver to hold online classes.&nbsp;"They did state that before they would even consider recommending schools to return back into the buildings, they will need to see a drop in positive cases to be less than 100 and a trend of 14 consecutive days of decrease; otherwise they consider the&nbsp;county&nbsp;to be at the highest risk level," Bass wrote in an email to district officials last month.&nbsp;A spokesperson for Polk County Health on Monday said the department's role is to offer information to school districts, but that it does not advise districts when it is appropriate to bring students back for in-person classes.&nbsp;"We provided them with guidance, let them know what we were seeing, but ultimately it's up to them to make that decision," Polk County spokesperson&nbsp;Nola Aigner Davis said.The Urbandale school board will meet Monday&nbsp;to discuss how Rolling Green will move forward. The meeting begins at 6:30 p.m. and is &nbsp; Charles Flesher covers K-12 education for the Register. He can be reached by email at cflesher@registermedia.com or by phone at 515-284-8481. Follow him on Twitter View Comments

Des Moines RegisterView CommentsThe Iowa Department of Education says students at Urbandale's Rolling Green Elementary School must return to in-person classes by Friday.The state denied the district's request to continue holding classes online at the elementary school, according to a letter sent to parents Monday by Urbandale Superintendent Steve Bass.The decision places Urbandale in "the uncomfortable position" of either bringing students back for in-person classes&nbsp;or "opposing the governor's orders and possibly state law," Bass wrote.&nbsp;"The board is exploring all possibilities,"...

State says students at Iowa elementary school must return to in-person classes by Friday

No article scores yet.

CRITIC REVIEWS

PUBLIC REVIEWS