What A Year!

We have officially completed our first quarter of the 2020-2021 school year, and what a year it has been. I’m not sure how optimistic everyone was prior to starting the year that we would make it to this point without experiencing some type of closure. I have been very pleased with how things have gone for the most part concerning the pandemic and I am very grateful that the beginning of this year has certainly started better than the end of last year. We have had a few bumps in the road, and even though I’m sure there will be more, we are even more optimistic for the outlook for the rest of the year.

I am very appreciative of the support we have seen from the West Fork School community. The patience and understanding that we have been given has been terrific as we navigate through this uncharted time. I believe the fact that we ALL have the same goal and that is we want/need our students in school and therefore everyone is doing their part to ensure that happens. The one area we need your help with is visiting with your students about wearing their masks appropriately and keeping them on, especially at the middle school and high school level. If we all do our part we can eliminate the need for having to quarantine many students in the event of a positive case if everyone wears their mask. We need your help to continue doing face to face as the COVID numbers are climbing.

With the recent spikes that we have seen within the counties positivity rates, it is more important than ever that we all do our part. Please be vigilant about wearing the masks as much as you can in any social setting where you are not able to be socially distanced as the number of cases is rising (nights, weekends, and social outings). Wash hands, social distance, and think about if the events you are attending are taking precautions. We want to keep attending school in person and we want our activities to continue to occur, we all must do our part. We are going to attach a short video from Cerro Gordo Public Health Director Brian Hanft to share the metrics that as a school we will consider when determining the need to go to some type of hybrid model or an online model of learning. This determination is based on more than just the county’s positivity rate.

I want to commend our staff for the extra effort that has been required to keep our buildings/classroom/buses as safe as possible. We have asked that everyone do their part to help in sanitizing and wiping down areas frequently to minimize the risks for not only our students but also for our staff. I also appreciate the time spent developing and posting the online instructional materials for our students that have chosen the online model. We hope that in the near future we will have all of our students back on campus and the conversations we have regarding the school are about all of the great things that have been happening that are being overshadowed by this pandemic. I can assure you there are many great things happening on a daily basis in all of our classrooms that many of you are not aware of. Just one of the things that come to mind is just how smoothly the transition has gone with the realignment of the two campuses. Please check out the rest of this newsletter for a few of the many great things that are happening

We’re all in this together! Go Warhawks!!

Mike Kruger

Superintendent