The Pella Community School District finished the week with a total of 45 students missing class due to a COVID-19 positive test on Friday.

An average of 154 students were absent over the past four days, or approximately 6.6% of the entire district population. Superintendent Greg Ebeling says this week has been the worst in terms of absences since they returned to class in the Fall of 2020, and the first time in several years a single building has had 10 percent of kids missing — Jefferson Intermediate School reported that number both Wednesday and Thursday.

Ebeling says because they can’t require mask wearing in response to the uptick, administration is strongly encouraging all staff and students to do so over the next several days to keep as many people in the building as safe as possible as the Delta Variant of COVID-19 and other respiratory illnesses spread throughout the area community.

Full interview with Ebeling: