A Station for Everyone
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Back to School in Sioux City

Today most Sioux City Community School students were back in school for the first since Friday, March 13th, when schools across Iowa were shut down because of the Coronavirus.  

Students returned to school using a hybrid modely. This morning school superintendent Paul Gausman welcomed students at Bryant Elementary school.  

“Feels a little different this year. We still are running our buses and opening all of our schools, but we are doing so with only half the students at each time, so that we are more able to properly socially distance and transition into the school year.”

Mary Olorundami is a third grade teacher at Bryant.  She says with only half of the students in her class at time, the room is much less crowded. 

Bryant Elementary School third grade teacher Mary Olorundami

“I at most need  need 12 desks in my classroom and there is six feet between every desk.  And that makes me feel safer and hopefully that will make families feel safer as well”

Gausman says class are also a little less crowded because thirty percent of students have chosen to learn virtually.  Looking ahead,  Gausman told reporters that if the county’s COVID-19 positivity rate remained at or below the current level of 9.5 percent, students would be back in school on September 8th, the day after Labor Day.

The state mandates that when schools reach a 15 percent positivity rate, they can request full-time virtual learning.  Neighboring Plymouth County now has a postitvity rate of more than 20 percent.  But Gausmans says those students from Plymouth County account for less than one percent of SIoxu City school district students 

Related Content