H-D, CAL schools switch to hybrid model

After nearly two months of onsite learning, Hampton-Dumont and CAL schools will switch back to a hybrid model until further notice.

Last Friday, the districts announced the change from onsite learning to the hybrid model, which was used at the beginning of the school year for the first few weeks.

The hybrid model will split students in each grade into “Bulldog” and “Strong” groups. For this week, the Bulldog group attended school in person on Monday and Tuesday while the Strong group was under distance learning. The Strong group will attend in-person learning on Thursday and Friday while the Bulldog group will be in distance learning. Wednesday will be used as a distance learning day for all students with the option to receive in person assistance at school if needed.

Next week, for Thanksgiving, the Bulldog group will be in person learning on Monday and the Strong group will be in person on Tuesday. The group that is not in person learning will be under distance learning. School will not be in session Wednesday through Friday.

Superintendent Todd Lettow said the change was made because of a rapid increase in positivity rate in the community as well as a significant rise in students and staff who have either tested positive for COVID-19 or must quarantine due to contact. Franklin County Public Health has reported nearly 100 new cases in a week. Lettow said that within the districts as of last Friday, 70 students and 12 staff members either tested positive or were quarantining at home.

“In some ways, it’s not as bad as some schools, but we’re taking a conservative approach of if we can do some things to curb additional cases, we wanted to err on the side of caution,” he said.

Information provided on the Hampton-Dumont district website said that no building has experienced an absentee rate of 10 percent or more. The Iowa Department of Public Health’s consideration for school closure for a district is a county positivity rate of 15 to 20 percent over a 14 day period and at least 10 percent student absenteeism.

Lettow said that the district will continue to have safety precautions in place, such as temperature checks at the door and mandatory mask use while on school property. He added that one of the benefits and reasons behind switching to the hybrid model is the ability to better socially distance within the buildings.

“This model, we can do a better job of social distancing at the school, we have seating charts where they’re sitting every other seat and it’ll be easier for us to social distance,” he said.

He said that the switch to hybrid model and the rise in cases is a reminder for students to adhere to safety recommendations outside of school, especially as they’ll be spending more time out of the building with the hybrid model and holiday vacations.

“The whole reason we went into this model is to curb the spread,” he said. “To do that, obviously, students have to be vigilant in staying away from each other, or at least wearing masks and practicing social distancing.

“The only way we will see a downward trend is if people do the measures that are out there from the CDC that they say we should do to curb the spread,” he added.