Several weeks ago a decision was made to allow kindergarten through third grade students back to Sawtooth Elementary, with a plan to bring fourth and fifth grade students back to Cook County ISD 166 if it was safe and there wasn’t a spike in COVID-19 cases in the county.
As we have all seen, there has not only been a tremendous surge statewide in COVID-19 cases, but a big spike in Cook County as well. On November 13, the COVID-19 Incident Command Team informed parents and the community that at this time, fourth and fifth grade students would not able allowed to attend school in person.
In a press release, the Incident Command Team stated, “After review of the current data and the letter that was received from the Minnesota Department of Health, our current county data, the regional health care resource capacity, and the state of our school, we have made the difficult decision to not pivot our fourth and fifth grade students.”
“This is difficult on many levels and our intentions are to keep safety a priority as we navigate this spike in COVID -19 cases in our county, state and country. As a team, we are also having an ongoing discussion about our learning model between Thanksgiving and Winter Holiday Break. We will continue to update our school families and community in the near future. Please remember to have unconditional positive regard for those who have been part of this decision; we must support one another in these tough situations.”
The Incident Command Team is made up of a safety officer from public health, school nurses, a school board liaison, family liaison, staff liaison, communication liaison, and financial, planning, Operation Building and Transportation liaisons.
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