By Teri Knight, News Director
“To start off, every Educator in the Country would clearly prefer to be back in person with kids as normal”, Northfield Schools Superintendent Dr. Matt Hillmann. The Dept. of Education will tell schools sometime during the week of July 27th their recommendation on how, or even if, students go back to school in the Fall. Hillmann added, “I think that you will see some of those decisions begin to become regional, maybe even countywide, I think you could even get to school by school, depending on the public health circumstance”. They continue to work creating plans for the three scenarios that include in-person, a hybrid option of 50% capacity and full time long distance learning. There are three teams working on the scenarios. Director of Instructional Services, Hope Langston, is, “looking at instructional design, pre-K twelve, what would the best way for us to be able to start teaching in the Fall in each of those scenarios”. Activities Director, Joel Olson, is running the logistics team to
figure out how to serve lunch, provide transportation and configure hallways. Should they be one-way? As for transportation, the current guidelines allow for just 13 students on a 77 passenger bus. They normally transport 3,000 students a day. They’re working with Benjamin Bus to help mitigate that issue. The third team, led by Director of Social Services Cheryl Hall, is focusing on health and virus prevention. What would screening look like, what’s the protocol should a student or teacher become ill? Health screenings entail temperature checks along with health questions, which means lines of children waiting. One option is a viable parental reporting system, Hillmann said, “where parents would affirm that their students who are coming to school that day don’t have any of the symptoms that would prevent them from being allowed to come to school”. And then there’s looking at staffing. Sixteen percent, right now, are uncomfortable coming back to in-person teaching. There are also some parents who only want online or distance learning for their children. Hillmann believes there will likely be a shift of all the scenarios if there’s a spike in illness. The District has plenty of soap and sanitizer throughout the schools. N-95 masks were on order but it was just cancelled due to sending them to hospitals. And then there’s the instructional piece of the puzzle. Hillmann has told the teams that he wants their plans 90% ready by July 21st to be prepared for finalizing the plans. His full interview is HERE.
Murder suspect apprehended
32 year old Mohamed Aweis Mohamed of Owatonna was killed Sunday at Dartt’s Park by a stab wound to the chest. The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) sent out an alert yesterday on a person of interest. 28 year old Hassan Nur Hassan was arrested without incident by Minneapolis police yesterday. Hassan is being transferred to the Steele County Jail as he awaits charges in Mohamed’s death.
Dairy farmer webinar on Covid financial programs
The University of Minnesota Extension will be hosting a webinar Tuesday July 28th to discuss the 2020 financial programs available for dairy farmers. Covid-19 caused significant agricultural market upheaval, with milk prices experiencing some of the most dramatic swings. Dairy farmers are eligible for several financial programs to help recoup some of the price lost during 2020. They lay all option out for you and conclude the webinar with a discussion of Dairy Margin Coverage (DMC). All the details are on our Updated Covid 19 page at the top and will be on our News page at noon.
