Rural Kansas school moves online, cancels sports 3 weeks after reopening due to COVID

Update:

Rawlins County public schools will reverse course after a Board of Education meeting following the superintendent’s announcement that all classes would move online and sports would be canceled for two weeks.

“The USD 105 Board of Education voted to allow Junior-Senior High School and activities to resume school on Thursday,” the district said in a Facebook post. “The Junior-Senior High School will be open tomorrow for students to return their supplies. The Board will meet again on Friday at 5:15 to determine school for the Elementary going forward.”

As of Tuesday night, the district’s website showed no scheduled school board meeting, as well as no agenda or minutes.

The district’s statement on the meeting did not indicate what would happen with sports and other activities.

Original story:

A rural Kansas school district is moving all classes online and canceling all sports activities for two weeks due to an outbreak of coronavirus cases three weeks after reopening.

Rawlins County public schools is making the move to online after multiple people in the district tested positive for COVID-19, Superintendent Eric Stoddard said Tuesday in a statement.

The district was informed of the cases by the Rawlins County Health Department, and the school and health officials are working to identify close contacts of the infected people.

“With the new positive cases and quarantine mandates USD 105 will go to Full Remote Learning for the next two weeks, with students returning to school on September 30th,” Stoddard said. “USD 105 will dismiss school at 1:30 today. All activities and practices are cancelled until September 30th. More information regarding remote learning will follow.”

The USD 105 school calendar shows the first day of class was three weeks ago, on Aug. 25. Face masks are not required at schools in the district.

The Kansas Department of Health and Environment reported just two cases in Rawlins County on Monday. The Rawlins County Health Department reported four active cases and five total cases on Monday.

Updated figures from the local agency were not immediately available Tuesday afternoon. The KDHE is expected to release new numbers on Wednesday.

Wednesday’s update from the state health department should also include numbers on coronavirus clusters, including names and locations of active outbreaks that meet certain criteria. It is unclear whether COVID-19 cases at Rawlins County schools are considered to be part of a cluster.

Rawlins County has a population of about 2,500 and is in northwest Kansas, about five hours from Wichita.

This story was originally published September 15, 2020 at 4:34 PM.