Newton to move high school online; Hutchinson to welcome back some sports fans

Newton Public Schools will move into an orange zone in its gating criteria next week, meaning students in seventh through 12th grade will move to remote learning and sports can continue, but now without fans.

Limited fans will still be allowed at home games this week.

The move is due to the increased spread of COVID-19 in the community, according to school officials. Pre-kindergarten through sixth grade will go from on-site to hybrid next week.

USD 373’s criteria looks at absenteeism and two statistics over the past couple of weeks: percent of positive cases and the rate of new cases. The rate of new cases was its worst scoring criteria, with 260.8 new COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents in Harvey County the last two weeks.

In Hutchinson, the Board of Education approved changing its gating criteria to allow fans despite being on the “high side of the orange currently, nearing the red zone,” USD 308 said in a news release on Tuesday.

“The (change allows) two spectators per participant at games in both the red and orange zone,” the release says. “The original gating criteria did not allow for spectators in either the orange or red zones.”

The Hutchinson district’s gating criteria is less restrictive than the criteria from the Kansas State Department of Education.

Reno County has a two-week case rate of roughly 610 per 100,000, according to data from the Reno County Health Department and using 2010 census data.

Last week, Hutchinson Public Schools switched to a hybrid model because of a “significant increase” in cases, according to a letter sent to guardians and parents. In the hybrid model, students alternate being at school or remote Monday through Thursday. All students will be remote on Fridays.

The Reno County Health Department also issued an order limiting mass gatherings of 100 or more people. The order takes effect Wednesday and has several exemptions, including outdoor stadiums “where large numbers of people are present but are generally not within 6 feet of one another for more than 10 minutes” and are able to socially distance.

Hutchinson is an area “where there may be bad news ahead,” according to the New York Times. The city is the third-worst metro area in the country for the fastest rise in cases, adjusted for population.

Contributing: Jason Tidd of The Eagle

This story was originally published October 13, 2020 at 4:52 PM.