Page 24 - KMAland Healthcare Heroes

24 A Salute to KMAland Healthcare Heroes KMAland 2021

KMAland Schools

Persevere through Pandemic

(KMAland) – If you are look- some different things – a parade “This changed a lot for us,”
ing for bright spots or heroes and individual ceremonies for said Nelson, “as it changed our
during the pandemic, look no kids. But, it was not the same, cleaning protocols, you know,
further than the schools of and that speaks for them. our social distancing require-
KMAland. “Our seniors went out not ments. We have had to do co-
quite with normalcy. Looking operative learning in a different
hen COVID-19 back, that was tough for the manner that we trained our staff
first reached Iowa kids,” he added. to do. Our students and staff,
Win mid-March 2020, Schools in KMAland have obviously, are wearing masks.
Governor Kim Reynolds closed been forced to adjust on the fly, We’ve limited visitors. We’ve
schools to mitigate the spread. whether it’s getting new mitiga- changed a lot of things.”
That closure eventually lasted tion efforts in place or switching Even with mitigation efforts –
through the rest of the academic to remote learning on a dime. like masks and enhanced clean-
year and included voluntary on- Shenandoah Superintendent ing – in place, some schools
line education. Following the Kerri Nelson says the pandemic could not avoid COVID related
summer, schools were able to changed day-to-day life in the shutdowns. At Fremont-Mills,
regroup and formulate plans for district entirely. large numbers of close contacts
the 2021-22 school year. prompted a shutdown in Octo-
ber.
“Through contact tracing and
things along that nature, we
had 52% of our high school
kids not that had caught CO-
VID, but needed quarantine,”
said Gute. “So, we felt it was
T best to not have school. We

David Gute is superintendent
of the Stanton and Fremont-
Mills School Districts. Gute says
he feels for the Class of 2020,
who missed out on their tradi-
tional end-of-school ceremonies.
“As we moved through the
spring semester,” said Gute, “kids
missed out on prom, and also
missed out on a normal gradua-
tion ceremony. We tried our best
to celebrate the kids by doing