School superintendents in Guthrie County have been working this summer with their respective public health officials on how to open school in the fall while mitigating COVID-19, though they are still waiting for one particular guidance from the Iowa Department of Public Health.

Guthrie County Public Health Director Jotham Arber says he believes Governor Kim Reynolds’ most recent proclamation focusing on schools resuming hasn’t affected the Adair-Casey/Guthrie Center, Panorama, or West Central Valley school administrative teams much on their return to learn plans. He notes that county public health departments and school districts are still waiting to hear from the Iowa Department of Public Health on what schools must do when a student has tested positive for COVID-19, “That’s the big question that everybody has is, so if we have a kid who becomes positive during a school year, how many people does that involve as far as quarantine? Are we going to have an evolving quarantine of students, or are there going to be different guidelines that allow them to be more of an essential worker-type where they’re able to continue to go back to school with no symptoms? There’s no definite answer on that, it’s looking more like the quarantine but we haven’t gotten that so we’re all waiting to see.”

Arber says that once this guidance is released it should make other details fall into place for schools’ return to learn plans. The three critical areas of virus mitigation that Arber has communicated to school districts is physical distancing, hand hygiene, and having parents instructed to keep their child home if they are ill. The public health department has also recommended face coverings for students and adults in middle and high schools when people are incapable of maintaining a six feet distance.