By Bruce Karnick

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Parents and students alike have been happy that kids are back in school. All the pentup energy has been spent and the social interactions happening that kids need so desperately; it’s been wonderful to see. That could all come to an end, and at a moments notice according to a letter from Superintendent Bob McDowell, Ed. D.

In the letter, McDowell cites a “significant week for COVID” in Dakota County where cases have reached 84.1 per 10,000 over the last 14 days. The school board has opted to go with the district number since that is geographically a better number to use as it does not include other bigger cities like Apple Valley or Burnsville. That number is 113.3 per 10,000.

According to the 2021 Return to in-person learning plan, 50 ore more per 10,000 is in the “high” category and masking is required for everyone indoors. With the county at 84.1 and the district at 113.3, the concern after safety becomes staffing. There are only so many substitute teachers available. Just like every other industry, the shortage of willing and qualified help is a big problem. COVID is not the only illness keeping teacher’s home. The numbers in Hastings schools appear low for those out with COVID.

High School: 13 total out, 10 students and three staff.

Middle School: 17 total out, 15 students and two staff.

Elementary schools: 19 total out, 17 students and two staff.

Tilden has a total of seven out, four students and 3 staff.

That is a total of 66 students and 10 staff. Staff could be teachers, office staff, lunchroom staff, janitorial staff.

According to McDowell, “The increasing positive numbers have us ramping up our readiness for potential changes, and I believe families should be aware and ready as well. In addition to watching the number of students out due to COVID, in a classroom, grade level, or building, we are also paying attention to the number of teaching staff that are out. To this point, we end up short on certain days, to cover all of our classes. Thankfully, staff has been willing to cover during their prep times when we have already assigned our additional full-time floating substitute teacher. However, if we start getting more staff out due to COVID, our situation could change because those staff are out for extended periods of time, and we may not be able to cover all of the needed classes throughout the day. What does this mean? It means we need to again be ready for the potential to move to distance learning. This could happen by classroom, grade level, or the entire building, and it will most likely occur with a day or less notice. At the same time, we might not need to move, but again, we need to be ready for it. If it does happen, communication will come from the building level to families.”

From the Hastings High School website, the school system has a Kindergarten through grade twelve enrollment of approximately 4,300 students. The district populations is roughly 28,000 residents.

66 of 4,300 students out with covid is 1.534% of the student body.

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, ISD 200 employs 252.48 full time equivalent teachers and 443.5 full time equivalent employee’s total. Actual employee numbers for full and part time are not available. 10 of 443.5 is roughly 2.25% of staff out with COVID.

Again, the issue at hand is there are other things aside from COVID keeping staff out, so staffing is currently an issue and may require a shift to home schooling. As McDowell said, that may happen with a days notice.

Parents need to be prepared to make the shift to home schooling. Have the students space setup and ready, keep your healthy snacks and beverages stocked, make sure the home network is working properly and that what ever device the student will use is fully updated. Fully updated being, most recent updates for your version of Windows or MacOS, antivirus updates, zoom updates, whatever other applications that are used like office type apps and such.

Encourage your students to practice good hygiene habits like frequent hand washing, coving coughs or sneezes and if they do not feel well, keep them home just to be sure. Hopefully, a return to distance learning is avoided, but its best to be prepared instead of surprised.