On Sunday evening, Alliance Public Schools Board President Tim Kollars called an emergency meeting to order to address the spike in positive COVID-19 cases at Alliance Public Schools.
At the meeting, board members voted unanimously to approve revisions to the board’s reopening plan that it had approved in August.
Superintendent Dr. Troy Unzicker issued a statement noting that the board was reluctant to mandate masks, and recommended students to wear masks when they returned to school on Oct. 27 after a snow day.
“If students do not have masks one will be provided for them at the office,” Unzicker said. “In addition, whenever possible, students who wear masks will be seated together and socially distanced from individuals who do not wear masks. This distance will help protect students wearing masks from being quarantined, as they will be distanced from individuals who do not wear masks.
Please talk to your student and encourage them to wear a mask to allow them to stay in school and slow the spread in our community. We also want to remind parents to carefully monitor your student for symptoms. If symptoms appear please ensure they remain at home to limit exposure of other students. If we all work together we can minimize the impact of COVID-19 on our students and community,” said Unzicker.
The main changes to the plan shifting masks from being “encouraged,” to “highly recommended,” making sure seating charts will be arranged in a way to maintain a distance between masked and non-masked students, and confirming that the administration will “share all requested information and allowing full access to the buildings as needed” to Panhandle Public Health District as they conduct their investigations.
As of Tuesday morning, according to the district’s COVID-19 dashboard, there have been 57 cumulative cases in the district since the school year began, with nine active at Alliance High School, 11 active at Alliance Middle School, one active at Grandview Elementary, and two active at the Early Childhood and District Team, and 34 recovered cases. There were a total of 211 people quarantined in the district.
Other schools in the Panhandle have also reported COVID-19 cases, though not as prevalent as at Alliance Public Schools. As of Monday evening, Chadron Public Schools reported a cumulative of 23 cases in the district, with no active cases and only seven people in the district quarantined. At Crawford Public Schools, there has only been one confirmed case, which has recovered. At Gering Public Schools, there have been 15 cases, with seven active and eight recovered. The quarantine information for Gering was not available. At Hemingford Public Schools, there have been five cumulative cases, with three active and two recovered. There were a total of 24 people in quarantine. At Scottsbluff Public Schools, there have been 32 cumulative cases, with 13 active and 19 recovered. There were a total of 122 people in quarantine. At Sidney Public Schools, there have been five cumulative cases, with one active and four recovered. There were a total of 13 people in quarantine.
Last week, officials at Scottsbluff Public Schools made the decision to not participate in activities with Alliance until further notice as they saw it as a risk to students, families and staff members. David Hoxworth, Activities Director at Scottsbluff High School, cited the lack of cooperation with Panhandle Public Health District and Alliance Public Schools’ policies regarding masking in the decision to not participate in activities with Alliance.
Hoxworth noted that if Panhandle Public Health District notifies Scottsbluff of changes at Alliance Public Schools, including implementing specific masking protocols, they will re-evaluate their decision.
“The number one goal for us here in Scottsbluff is to keep our kids in school and participating in their activities,” said Hoxworth. “We believe that our protocols of masking in school and most activity situations have kept our numbers manageable.”