File photo
File photo
DeKalb students have shifted back to remote learning.
Parents received a letter stating the district would cancel current and upcoming in-person programs effective Oct. 26 due to the increase in COVID-19 cases. All students will revert to remote learning.
The news was a disappointment to Superintendent Ray Lechner.
"We were moving forward," Lechner said. "We have a plan we want to implement and it will be two weeks now before we can reconsider."
According to Lechner, the two-week wait is needed by the district before re-opening and if the “seven-day rolling positivity rate drops back below 8% – which hasn't happened in weeks.”
The county had a 9.3% positivity rate during the last update. Previously, the district was using the rates only for DeKalb, Malta and Cortland but decided to use countywide metrics during a recent meeting with the DeKalb County Health Department.
DeKalb’s goal is to move ahead with its return plans soon.
"We haven't shifted our eyeballs yet. We are still keeping our targets. That's today. Obviously, the positivity rate is going to drive our decisions,” Lechner said. “That's the bottom line. The matrix is online and it says 8% and over we need to do remote. That matrix came from the state, is used in a majority of the county, and we adopted it with input from the county health department."
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