The Indianola School Board reviewed the Return to Learn Plan for the district at their meeting Monday night, discussing the 6th grade students at Indianola Middle School moving to a virtual learning environment due to several teachers testing positive for COVID-19. Superintendent Art Sathoff tells KNIA News the contact tracing concluded too many teachers had been exposed to the positive cases to make in-person learning safe for students, and delayed them receiving their new computers.

“The Chromebooks were set to be handed out to the students on the first couple days of school, and for our remote instruction they are receiving them tonight from a schedule quickly put together from our IT staff. So it was a very fast moving kind of thing, in a matter of just a few hours prior to the board meeting Monday. We always try to communicate well and keep everyone up to date, and give as much notice as we can. But we really felt bad for our 6th graders and their families who were really looking forward to coming back, then at the last second having to delay that.”

For more information, tune in to today’s Let’s Talk Indianola.