Lang
11/10/20
The Iowa City Community School District has been granted a waiver from the state to go back to 100% online learning.
The school board held a virtual meeting on Tuesday night, where they approved using the two-week waiver starting Monday. Board members argued that the wait until Monday would allow parents time to rearrange their schedules and find child care.
District officials applied for the waiver on Saturday due to rising COVID-19 rates in Johnson County.
A check of the district’s COVID-19 dashboard shows 132 students currently confirmed or presumed positive for the coronavirus as of 3pm Tuesday. 474 students are currently quarantining due to exposure to the virus. Among staff, 30 are currently COVID-19 positive, and 92 are currently quarantining due to exposure. There are currently 17 classroom closures, and five extracurricular activities have been closed.
Monday was the sixth day in a row with positivity rate averages above 10%. The Johnson County 14-day average positivity rate as of Tuesday was 16.1%.
About 54% of students in the district are currently taking classes in-person, in a hybrid model.
The Iowa City district started the first three weeks of the fall semester with online-only learning after receiving two previous state waivers.