The board, administration, faculty staff and students at the Carroll Community School District have had to face innumerable challenges with COVID-19 since early this year. Superintendent, Dr. Casey Berlau, says they have had to change plans on the fly several times since reconvening for in-person classes this fall. He looks back at several challenges they have overcome as they near the end of the first half of the year in January and the Christmas break after Dec. 22.
To date, he says they have had around 800 quarantine situations, with some students quarantined several times, but only about 85 positive cases in the student body. There have been about 72 staff members quarantined with 40 positive cases. However, Berlau says, they have not seen a lot of transmission between the infected individuals and others at the schools.
As they moved from a mask recommendation to a requirement, some staff members began to feel like they are nit-picking. But the main challenge, he says, is making sure students know how to correctly employ the mitigation methods.
This, he says, has become a routine part of their day now. The middle and elementary schools have maintained the in-person model, but the high school was moved to the hybrid model this past fall, basically every other day in-person, and they expect that to continue for at least the rest of the semester. Berlau says he is incredibly proud of his staff and how they have adapted to the changes that have been thrust upon them.
With the latest proclamation from the governor, extra-curricular activity attendance has been limited to two tickets per athlete, and Berlau says he believes that will continue through the season—perhaps with a change in the amount of tickets allowed. When it comes to the upcoming holidays and the typical celebratory activities, he says they have been working to try to figure out a solution that still includes some of them.
More details on any of these activities will be announced at a later date. The last school day before Christmas break is Tuesday, Dec. 22. Classes resume on Monday, Jan. 4 and the end of the semester is Thursday, Jan. 14.
