After 55 days of in-person and hybrid classes Northland Pines district administrator Scott Foster gave a report on how the district is coping with the COVID pandemic and more importantly how the students and staff are accepting the changes and challenges.
“We have about 1500 persons involved with the challenges counting students, teachers, bus drivers, and food service and all have adapted well and adjusted,” Foster said. “Our main goal of continuing in person teaching is working and the kids have adjusted to wearing masks, which we thought would be an issue, but is not.”
Foster noted the district tracks how many kids and staff are out on a daily basis and indicated last week Thursday they had 64 out over the four district campuses.
“We’ve had 46 positives with most affected in the Middle-High School,” he said, noting these students are older and many have driver licenses and go places the elementary kids don’t. “Our positive rate is very low in our buildings compared to the communities in general.”
Foster said one of the new adjustments made was hybrid learning which is a mix on in-person and virtual learning. It allows students to be in contact with both their teachers and classmates. “This is hard on teachers since they had to adapt to both in-class and on-screen teaching at the same time,” he said.
Bus service deserves high praise according to Foster since they “are doing a fantastic job in separating students and really all have done something different to maintain our schools to remain open. Winter sports of boys and girls hockey and basketball will continue as long as possible since it gives an opportunity for kids to be kids again.”
The school web page dashboard shows what is happening on a daily basis.