Clarkston middle, high schools go online only

Secondary students in the Clarkston School District will switch to remote learning today for at least two weeks.

The decision was made because of rising COVID-19 case counts in Asotin County and because of a large number of student absences in grades seven through 12.

Superintendent Thaynan Knowlton said a positive case in a staff member led to the quarantine of more than 130 students at the middle school. And the number of kids who are out of school now is even higher than that.

“Out of the 2,400 people we have (within the school district), we have had 70 students out at the high school and over 170 out at the middle school,” said Knowlton, who added some of those students are quarantining, while others called out for different reasons. “I have some student absences at other buildings like I have had all year long, but none of them are anywhere close to this level.”

The school district has had 17 cases of COVID-19 reported within its buildings since the start of the school year, although none have been traced back to the schools. Seven of those cases, among three staff members and four students, remain active.

Overall, the school district currently has 27 staff members in quarantine and about 415 students who have called out of school over the last several days.

The decision to switch to distance learning at the secondary level was not an easy one, Knowlton said. But the number of staff members and secondary students who are absent creates challenges, which are exacerbated by substitute shortages.

“Let’s say, for example, you have a classroom at the middle school and have half of the kids gone. As a teacher, you have just a small handful of students face-to-face, and the rest of them are at home being quarantined. So then the teacher is having to prepare two lesson plans, and then you run into sub issues,” Knowlton said. “Because of a combination of factors, it makes more sense to have those middle school and high school students go home for two weeks so the teachers can do full online instruction, and then we’ll reevaluate.”

Rising case counts in Asotin County contributed to the decision as well. Knowlton said the county reported a 14-day count of more than 140 cases. If that number is extrapolated to a population of 100,000, it works out to about 620 cases per 100,000 people. In guidance provided by Gov. Jay Inslee and the state of Washington, school districts with more than 75 cases per 100,000 people during a two-week period are recommended to go to fully remote learning.

About a month ago, school officials and public health officials decided they would more heavily weigh the number of cases within the school district as they made decisions about the structure of education.

“At that point, it became about watching trends, and this is one of the trends that just showed up in a real big way yesterday,” Knowlton said.

He asked parents to keep their students at home if they had symptoms and to see a doctor if those symptoms persisted.

“The next two weeks are going to be telling for what happens between now and January,” he said. “I want to give ample notification to our community that if over the next two weeks we don’t see a lot of cases rising in the district, then we’ll be able to bring the middle school and high school students back. If internally our numbers trend way up, then there could potentially be a decision made for the rest of the schools for the remainder of the (2020) year.”

No changes were made for kindergarten through sixth grade students, who will continue to attend school in a hybrid format, part in-person and part online.

If all goes well, secondary students will be able to return to a hybrid learning model on Nov. 20.

Tomtas may be contacted at jtomtas@lmtribune.com or at (208) 848-2294. Follow her on Twitter @jtomtas.