CLICK TO HEAR JACK HALL’S INTERVIEW WITH COBY FLETCHER
The Escanaba Area Public Schools announced Monday afternoon that classes will be held on-line only for the rest of this week for junior and senior high school students, as well as those at the Lemmer Elementary School. This follows a two-week shutdown at the junior/senior high school building earlier this month.
Escanaba Superintendent Coby Fletcher tells the Radio Results Network that this shutdown is different than the last.
“We have two things going on.” Fletcher said. “One, we have an uptick in positive cases in Delta County coming into our school. It’s different than the last shutdown because then, there was some transmission within our buildings. This time, it’s students testing positive, or maybe a staff member, outside of the school, and then we find out about it and have to quarantine people. The second issue is we have a large number of faculty members, especially at Lemmer, who are quarantining and so there, we are shortstaffed.”
He says the closing of the junior/senior high buildings, as well as Lemmer, will allow for “deep cleaning” to be done this week.
“We will have most of our faculty back (from quarantine) on Monday, and a large number of students who have had to quarantine will also be back on Monday.”
Many of those students, he says, have no symptoms, but were in close contact with people who tested positive.
The district decided to allow sports and other extracurricular activities to continue, unlike during the last shutdown. That’s because the transmission is not happening within the schools. The Eskymo football playoff game at Alma on Saturday is still on, as are Escanaba’s volleyball matches Tuesday in Marquette.
Fletcher says that the Webster Elementary School, the Upper Elementary, and the Student Success Center are all doing well and will remain open to in-person instruction.
“We need to see the case numbers start to go down in Delta County,” Fletcher said.
Delta County has more positive tests than any other U.P. county, having crossed the 1,000 mark on Saturday. The county also has the most COVID-related deaths with 22.
Fletcher’s letter to the community is posted below:
With the uptick in COVID-19 cases in Delta County, our district continues to see numerous positive cases making their way into schools. While this has not significantly impacted all our buildings, we are experiencing an increase in positive cases at Lemmer Elementary and the Junior High/Senior High. This has greatly reduced staffing levels and resulted in a growing number of quarantined students in these buildings.
To address this situation, the District will close Lemmer Elementary and the Junior High/Senior High to in-person instruction from Tuesday, October 27, 2020 through Friday, October 30, 2020. Face to face instruction will resume on these campuses on Monday, November 02, 2020. This short closure will give several staff and a large number of students time to return from quarantine and will also provide us another chance to deep clean and sanitize. Because this closure is short-term and not due to ongoing transmission on campus, athletics and extracurricular activities will continue as normal.
Please note that this closure is only to in-person instruction at Lemmer Elementary and the Junior High/Senior High. Webster Kindergarten Center, the Upper Elementary, and the Escanaba Student Success Center will operate as usual.
Staff from Lemmer Elementary and the Junior High/Senior High will be in touch with parents to provide more detail on how instruction will continue remotely. Information regarding meal pickup for interested families will be provided, as well.
As always, we encourage our community to be vigilant in taking action to reduce the rate of spread of COVID-19 in Delta County. This, more than anything else, will help our schools return to a normal instructional routine. Please contact your child’s campus administrator should you have any questions.
Comments