High school in online learning mode through Thanksgiving

By Blake Spurney Staff

NEWTON — After a cluster of COVID-19 cases surfaced this week at Newton High School, the USD 373 Board of Education Wednesday approved a “modified orange” mode of learning starting Monday and continuing through the Thanksgiving holiday.

That means students in high school will take online classes, those in fifth-eighth grades will have a hybrid mode and fourth-graders and younger will have in-person classes.

Board members discussed two options put forth by Superintendent Fred Van Ranken. The other option would have put students in kindergarten through sixth grade in the hybrid mode, and seventh-graders and older would attend classes remotely.

Van Ranken acknowledged that board members were getting a lot of feedback from parents, staff and patrons of the community. He said whatever decision they made would be viewed as the wrong decision in the eyes of many.

Van Ranken said he wanted to keep elementary students in school as much as possible because he was concerned about them being home alone.

“That’s a huge concern to me,” he said. “We’ve talked a lot about that in this room.”

The district is in an orange mode of learning based on gating criteria for the spread of COVID-19. Based on the district’s original plan, students in kindergarten through sixth grade would have been in the hybrid mode, and older students would take classes remotely. Board President Matt Treaster dubbed the option the board chose as “modified orange.”

Health Department Director Lynnette Redington provided board members with an update to start the meeting. She said the Kansas Department of Health and Environment classified Newton High School as a cluster because five cases of COVID-19 surfaced at one location. She said the health department hadn’t listed NHS as a cluster because the cases couldn’t trace it to one or two sources.

“It surprised us as it probably did you that we had a cluster at Newton High School,” she said.

Redington said COVID-19 was now in the schools, households, businesses and long-term care facilities. She said the health department and the COVID-19 task force were considering putting the county back into phase III of the county’s reopening plan. That designation would limit mass gatherings to 45 people.

Redington said the county had 172 active cases of COVID-19, an increase of 18 from Wednesday morning. The number of cases has doubled within a week. Nine deaths have been attributed to the virus, including one from last week.

Redington said all area hospitals were at full capacity. She said three Harvey County residents currently were hospitalized with COVID-19. She said Newton Medical Center’s COVID-19 unit had patients from other counties. Of the county’s 747 cases to date, fewer than 15 have been hospitalized, she said.

Board member Luke Edwards asked if the limit on mass gatherings would apply to schools. Redington said schools weren’t included in the reopening plan.

Van Ranken said the district had 62 teachers and 208 students on quarantine. He said 19 staff members and 22 students had contracted the virus, many of which got it within the past week.

“We might even get a few more tonight,” he said. “We get those calls all the time.”

Van Ranken said the other school districts in the county also were considering changing their modes of learning based on the number of cases.

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