Hello all,
Today the Governor signed a bill into law that requires all schools to offer 100% in-person learning. As you know we have online learning for all students each Wednesday, so that means we offer in-person learning 80% of the time. We are drafting the appropriate notifications that are required with this law and we will be bringing an amended calendar to the school board in a few weeks to address the new requirements. In the meantime, please be patient as we organize to meet the new requirements of the bill signed into law by Governor Reynolds. These changes do not need to be in place until the week of February 15th, so we have some time to sort out all the legalities and information coming out from the Department of Education before then. I am hopeful that we can find a solution that meets the requirements of the new law and allows our parents to continue to attend in-person or online.
Looking at our numbers this week, our positivity rate in Monticello is 11.6%. In Jones County, the positivity rate is 11.7%. Over the last 7 days, there have been 12 cases of COVID-19 in Monticello and 29 cases in Jones County. That is only up a little from last week. We are still in a very good place with our school numbers as you will see from the data below. Let’s keep up the good work!!!
Our updated numbers for this week are as follows:
1. We currently have approximately 12 students and 1 staff in isolation (these people have tested positive for COVID or are showing COVID symptoms) and approximately 5 students and zero staff in quarantine (these people have been exposed to someone with COVID-19, not necessarily at school). That is approximately 2% of our student body and less than 1% of our staff that is out for COVID-19 related reasons. These continue to be really good numbers for both staff and students.
2. We still have many students participating in online learning. This number has stayed the same for the last two weeks. As of today, we have approximately 111 prek-12 students participating in full online learning or hybrid online learning. That is approximately 11% of our student body taking one or more online courses. If you would still like to move to in-person learning, please contact your principal.
That is it for this week. I hope you all have a wonderful weekend and please be safe!!!
Sincerely,
Dr. Brian Jaeger, Superintendent