Sheldon, Iowa — With the numbers of positive COVID-19 tests increasing daily here in northwest Iowa, some area schools are experiencing increasing numbers of student, teacher and staff that are either testing positive for the virus, or coming into close contact with others who are.
Sheldon Community Schools Superintendent Cory Myer tells KIWA that the Sheldon district has had a number of students and staff quarantining due to testing positive or being exposed to someone who has tested positive. He says they have been exploring mitigation strategies to increase social distancing in an effort to reduce spreading the virus and also reduce the number of students who are having to quarantine. Myer says when students are forced to quarantine, it has an impact on their parents’ ability to work, removes the student from extracurricular activities and most importantly, has a negative impact on the student’s academic experience.
Myer has scheduled a special school board meeting for Wednesday evening at 5:35 in the high school library. The purpose of this meeting is to allow the school board to hear from local healthcare officials regarding the potential healthcare resource capacity concerns within O’Brien County due to the current COVID-19 pandemic. The meeting will be conducted via Zoom and is hosted by O’Brien County Public Health. Myer says additional healthcare professionals are being invited to participate, along with all O’Brien County schools. Myer says the Sheldon school board may possibly take action following the Zoom session.
Other area school districts have already made changes to accommodate greater social distancing. The Sibley-Ocheyedan Community Schools updated their “Return to Learn Plan” to reflect greater social distancing, while the MOC-Floyd Valley Schools are renting four movie theater auditoriums to allow for greater social distancing. All in an effort to mitigate the spread of the virus among their faculty and student body while remaining in a face-to-face learning environment.
