AP/Lang
9/11/20
State officials have granted Iowa City schools a two-week extension to teach all of its classes online as the district seeks to avoid the spread of the coronavirus among students and staff.
The state granted the request on Wednesday — the same day it received the request from the Iowa City Community Schools District, one of the largest in the state. School districts must request a waiver from the state in order to pursue two weeks of online-only classes and must show the positivity rate in their county is at least 15%. Iowa City schools officials said Wednesday that Johnson County’s 14-day positivity rate had reached 20.4% as of Wednesday.
The district filed for a second waiver after losing a court ruling against the state earlier this week. District officials wanted to temporarily halt in-person classes without permission from Governor Kim Reynolds. Reynolds had already granted a waiver to Iowa City schools for the first two weeks of the school year due to a spike in coronavirus cases in Johnson County.
The Iowa City school board will meet Tuesday at 5pm to discuss how to proceed. If the district decides to use the waiver, it would also mean two more weeks in which Iowa City schools are unable to compete in athletics or conduct other extracurricular activities.