IXL Elementary School. (Photo courtesy USD 470)
IXL Elementary in Ark City will learn from home through Nov. 23 starting Tuesday, the school district announced Monday.
“Unfortunately, COVID continues to have a growing impact on our schools,” USD 470 Director of Communications Alisha Call said in an email. “At IXL Elementary, the number of staff positives has reached a level in which there is no longer enough coverage for classrooms.
IXL students will learn from home tomorrow, November 16 through November 23. We believe this will provide IXL students with the safest and most effective learning opportunity.”
Adams Elementary closed late last week and will continue to be closed the rest of this week.
According to the school district’s COVID Dashboard as of Monday night, 324 students throughout the district are under quarantine along with 34 staff members. There are 26 active cases involving staff members and 52 involving students.
Elementary schools in the district are seeing the highest numbers involving COVID and the health department says Delta variant cases are a prominent factor in new cases — predominantly among unvaccinated populations.
Adams Elementary has 93 students and 10 staff quarantined with seven active staff cases and 16 active student cases. That puts Adams’ “COVID impacted” school population at 27.43 percent.
The district begins to require mask-wearing at any school with more than 10 percent of its population “COVID impacted.”
IXL has 44 students and 12 staff quarantined with nine active staff cases and seven active student cases. IXL’s “COVID impacted” percentage rose to 33.71 percent by Monday evening.
Roosevelt Elementary had an impact percentage of 39.83 as of Monday evening, but can still operate since it only has three staff quarantined and has yet to close.
Ark City Middle School is just under the mask-wearing mark with a “COVID impacted” percentage of 9.54 percent as of Monday evening.
Friday, Cowley County Public Health Officer Thomas Langer reported 55 percent of all new cases in the county for the first 12 days of November are among ages 0-18.
“Please continue to be mindful of your own health and the health of others,” Call wrote. “Parents/guardians, if your students do not feel well, please keep them home from school and other activities. Thank you!”
