WENTZVILLE, Mo. — When freshman football players hit the field at Holt High School for summer practice recently, it was the first time that students were back together on campus since the spring.
Wentzville School District didn't have in-person summer school so the positive cases with players at all three of their high schools are teaching staff how the virus might spread among students and informing the way they react.
Mary LaPak, chief communications officer for the district, confirmed the three positive cases Wednesday morning.
The district was made aware of a positive COVID-19 case on Holt High School’s freshman football team on Monday. A band student at Holt also tested positive. The third positive case was a student at Timberland High School.
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“Communication is critical,” Superintendent Curtis Cain said. “It is absolutely mission critical that we are effectively communicating, but I think it is important that we all have a realistic expectation and understanding of what is going to occur and how it is going to occur.”
Cain said he'll still trying to work out what metrics they'll use to decide if -- and when – the district changes phases, information he’ll present to the school board Thursday.
“What is the total picture telling us? That's how we are going to interpret the data and use it to move forward,” Cain said.
But Wentzville leaders aren’t the only administrators in this position.
“We talk about everything from sports to hybrid plans to virtual instruction and how we can do that in the best way possible,” EdPlus CEO Paul Ziegler said of the group of superintendents that meets every Wednesday.
The superintendents have met for 18 weeks to talk about the return to school.
In June, they were strategizing how to bring kids back.
By July, the conversation changed as infections rates rose.
“That really caused a lot of our educational leaders to pause because we were seeing a trend that we did not expect to see,” Ziegler said.
As Cain crunches the numbers, he said he’s consulting with superintendents across the state to find best the way to keep students healthy and in school.
“Any five-star idea that we can utilize here in Wentzville School District, there is zero doubt that we are going to work to do so,” Cain said.
Wentzville parents have organized a protest that's expected to begin before Thursday's scheduled school board meeting. They want the school district to move to a five-day-a-week in-school learning plan. District leaders are expected to talk about metrics for changing course during the school year.