By: Donovan W. Mann – donovanm@977thebolt.com
Humboldt, IA – Humboldt Community School District leadership is watching and analyzing the county’s COVID-19 numbers as the start of the school year draws near.
Humboldt CSD Superintendent of Schools Jim Murray and the administrative staff continue to work with Humboldt County Public Health to get students back in the class room safely. This includes looking at Humboldt County’s COVID-19 cases, positivity rate and other metrics when deciding what learning model to implement when returning to learning.
Murray says that the state has given guidance on what numbers to look at when it comes to making a transition to hybrid or remote learning. The first metric they will be looking at is the positivity rate. On the state’s COVID-19 website they have added a positivity analysis over the course of two weeks’ time for public school’s to use. The second metric Murray says the state wants schools to use is the percentage of students attending. He says you can’t account for this stat yet because school hasn’t started.
The superintendent does say the discussion of the data has to be put into perspective. He says as a reminder that there is no test Iowa site in Humboldt County. Because of this he continues by saying most people in Humboldt County who get tested have to show symptoms. “We don’t test everybody who wants a test.” Murray puts the pieces together by saying if someone is approved for a test and have symptoms it is more likely the test will come back positive.
Murray continues to put Humboldt County’s number in perspective when discussing number of people tested compared to larger regions. He brings forth the example on Thursday, Aug. 6 when Humboldt test a total of nine people and four tests came back positive. “So that would be a 44 percent positivity rate.” The superintendent says if you compare this to Des Moines or larger areas, they test thousands of people a day. The smaller number of tests administered will drive up the positivity rate Murray says.
Murray says the plan for the district remains the same. They hope to get the student back to face to face learning in the safest manner possible.