School Districts Continue Battle With Coronavirus

The Glenwood Community School District is continuing to deal with its first confirmed cases of COVID-19.

The district was notified of its first confirmed case, a student at West Elementary, by Mills County Public Health (MCPH) on Oct. 1. Since then, five more cases have been confirmed in the district.

Superintendent Devin Embray confirmed Monday that a total of five students and one staff member have tested positive for COVID-19. Two of the students attend West Elementary school, two attend Glenwood Middle School and one attends Northeast Elementary. The staff member works at the middle school. Embray declined to say if the staff member is a teacher nor what grades the students are in.

Communication was sent out from Northeast, West and the middle school last week informing parents of the positive cases.

All the cases are being investigated by MCPH and none of the individuals are believed to have contracted the virus in school buildings, according to Embray. In a text message Monday Embray said it’s believed some of the exposure may have come at a youth sporting event.

Any individuals who have been identified as having “close contact” with the individuals who tested positive have been contacted regarding necessary procedures. The six individuals with known infection are currently isolated and will not be allowed to return to school for two weeks or until they receive a negative test.

“If anyone else would have had to be quarantined they would have been contacted by public health,” Embray said. “We did not have to do any social contact tracing because of that.”
Embray did caution while the district has had no other confirmed cases, each building does have “several” students and staff who are currently self-isolating.

“We’ve had several students isolating or quarantining not because it’s school related but because we’re sending them home or public health has contact with them over a weekend,” Embray said. “Nothing we’ve had has shown a spread in schools.”

Fremont-Mills returned to school last week after a total of 20 cases in the K-12 building closed the school for three weeks.

Embray said Glenwood will continue to monitor students and staff closely and maintain the health and safety protocols in its schools.

“Hygiene has been big for us,” said Embray. “Cleaning of rooms, the washing of hands and wiping down desks has been a big piece for us. Our nurses are also busy with keeping an eye on symptoms and we’re sending kids home if they have two or more high risk symptoms. They are encouraging kids to get tested if they are and if they’re negative and symptoms are improving they can come back.”