COVID case numbers are up in younger students at the Lisbon school district, but not at a level that would require reporting to the Iowa Department of Public Health
“We have been instructed to treat this like a flu this school year,” said Lisbon superintendent Pat Hocking. “That means until we have cases that impact 10 percent or more of the school, we don’t have to report the illnesses to the state.”
For Lisbon, that would mean between 70 and 80 students out for COVID-19 infections.
As of this moment, COVID-19 vaccines have not been approved for anyone under age 12.
Current numbers for the district have 15 students at the elementary level and six students at the secondary level out of school due to COVID-19 infections.
“What we’re seeing in the early numbers is that this variant isn’t hitting our adults and secondary classes as hard, it’s hitting more at elementary school levels,” Hocking said.
Hocking noted that while the district did receive the letter from Linn County Public Health about possible ways to apply masks to be worn at the district, he and the other school superintendents in Linn County released their own letter Thursday, Sept. 9.
“The issue from this year to last year and even in other states is that this isn’t just a recommendation we’re trying to skate around, this is a state law,” Hocking said. “We’ve conferred with our attorneys, and we just can’t do that.”
The district is counting on parents to help slow the spread of COVID-19 in schools, as parents have more control over what mitigation measures their own students use.
Anyone with close contact in a classroom doesn’t have to quarantine or isolate, just monitor themselves for symptoms.
As well, the district can’t bar siblings of a student with COVID-19 from attending the district.
“The school is being put in the middle of all of this,” Hocking said. “We’re not involved with public health. We’re involved with the safety of our students. We need the help of parents to monitor for symptoms and not send a child to school if they are sick.”
Lisbon teacher Kasi Shogren asked if the district could recommend mask usage again. Hocking noted that the district does recommend mask usage by all students, but school leaders can not go further than recommending mask usage, as it is a personal choice issue for all people attending the district.
Lisbon school board member Abbe Stensland noted that as a board, there was more empowerment to the board to make decisions last year, but this year many of the local control issues are prohibited for the district to make.
“We need parents to not just think of their own students, but the students that their sick child could come in contact with and if they are sick, to keep them home,” Stensland said.

COVID notifications

Elementary principal Justin Brown noted that he only contacts parents if there has been a positive case in classrooms within a 10 day window.
“We’re doing that to try and not single out individual students, but just let parents know that their student may have been exposed to the virus in classrooms,” Brown said
The district has learned about some cases from social media posting before those have been reported to the school, but can’t notify other parents until they have officially been contacted about a positive case, Brown said.
Shogren suggested that COVID cases are once again reported to the public as was done last year, in hopes numbers of cases in the district will encourage more families to be more proactive with mask wearing in school buildings.
Lisbon School board member Jen Caspers agreed sharing the numbers would help clear up misinformation on social media.
Hocking agreed reporting COVID numbers should happen, noting that if cases are below six, the district will report case counts are lower than six for a certain group.