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Email from Dell Rapids: Covid-19 Return to Safe Learning Changes

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Last week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) updated its guidance for isolation and quarantine for the general population. Beginning Tuesday, January 11th DRPS will adhere to the isolation guidance that has been created for K-12 schools.  Parents may choose to keep their child home the full 10 days of isolation regardless of symptoms, however, if electing to send students back after the mandatory 5-day isolation, mask use is required through day 10.  Each building will have breakfast and lunch protocols that students will adhere to if the 5-day mask option is taken.

As with our entire plan, we will monitor data and initiate amendment protocols when needed.

Isolation Guidance

Positive for COVID-19 and do not have symptoms:

  • Isolate for 5 days and then wear a mask through day 10.
  • If they develop symptoms after testing positive, the 5-day isolation period would start over. Day 0 is the first day of symptoms.

Positive for COVID-19 and have or had symptoms:

  • Isolate for 5 days. Day 0 is the first day of symptoms (test date is no longer used).
  • Mask worn through day 10.
  • If they continue to have a fever or other symptoms have not improved after 5 days of isolation, they should wait to end isolation until they are fever-free for 24 hours without the use of fever-reducing medication and their other symptoms have improved.

Please work with building administration to determine your child’s return date. The South Dakota Department of Health also has resources and calculators available on its website.  https://doh.sd.gov/COVID/Calculator/

Vaccine Clinic to be Held at Dell Rapids School

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Image from CDC website

Avera Medical Clinic of Dell Rapids will be hosting a COVID-19 Immunization clinic at Dell Rapids School.  The first dose for interested students and staff will be on Tuesday, September 14th from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.  The second dose will be held on Tuesday, October 5th.  The clinic will only be available for staff and students 12 years of age and older, but parents can accompany their children during the shot if they wish.  A permission form is needed before administration of the vaccine, which can be found by clicking here. 

Dell Rapids Public School hosted a Covid-19 Vaccine Informational Town Hall on Wednesday, September 8th with Dr. Mike Elliott, MBA from Avera McKennan Health.  The town hall was streamed live and recorded by Big Sioux Media.  The entire town hall can be viewed in the archive video below. 

Dell Rapids Mask Mandate Ordinance Receives No Motion after First Reading

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The Dell Rapids City Council held a first reading of a new mask mandate ordinance during their regular meeting on Monday, December 5th.  The ordinance died due to a lack of motion.

City Administrator Justin Weiland said, “The city had been approached by many members of the community, businesses, as well as council members that thought we needed to have this discussion this evening,” in his opening remarks on the ordinance discussion.  He also noted that the suggested ordinance did not have an enforcement attached to it and was very similar to the mandate Sioux Falls passed.

“Overall I think the people in this community are smart enough to social distance the best they can.  They have a choice to go into a business that is enforcing the rules or not enforcing the rules.  You have a choice to not go into a business if you don’t like the way the are running it.  I just look at this as dividing our community,” said councilman Mark Crisp.  He also said, “The educational part of this, Justin that you have recommended, that’s what I believe we need to do more of.  We get more things done in this community when working together.”

Councilman Chad Ronshaugen said, “In general I’m not for putting in laws that are not enforceable.  That’s a really tough thing for me.  I’ve thought a lot about this as well, and I’ve viewed it more as an act of leadership, along the lines of the education to say that as leaders of our community, here’s the best practice and here’s how we would lay it out.”

After a discussion among the council members, the topic was open for public input.  Dan Ahlers, President of the Dell Rapids Chamber of Commerce, shared information on a recent survey the chamber conducted about the mask ordinance that indicated 72% of those who responded to the survey would be in favor of the mask ordinance along with the Dell Rapids Chamber of Commerce.  Several community members spoke in opposition of the ordinance, however, a few of those opposed to the ordinance were in favor of the council supporting more educational options.

The council members took no action on the ordinance after hearing the public’s input on the matter.

The full video archive of the meeting can be found in the embedded page, along with full meeting minutes.

Dell Rapids Public Moves to Tier Two for Activities

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Image from CDC website

In a message that was released on Wednesday, September 2nd, the Dell Rapids Public High School is moving to Tier Two for activity attendance.  This is in place starting with Thursday’s home volleyball match against Sioux Falls Christian.

In the statement Activity Director Jeff Dvorak said that the school may stay at Tier Two for events next week, or it may move back to Tier One.

Here is what Tier Two means for those that want to attend activities at Dell Rapids High School:

  • Each athlete and coach will receive four vouchers to distribute as they choose.
  • Staff members must have and show a staff ID.  This is good for staff only.  Spouses of staff must have a voucher.
  • A middle school or high school student will be allowed into the events by being students.  No voucher is needed.
  • All other fans must have a pink game voucher to be admitted.
  • Elementary students in Grades 4 and below must have a voucher to attend the event.
  • Children not yet in school do not need a voucher and will be allowed into the event with a parent that has a voucher.
  • A voucher just allows you to be admitted to the event.  Admission must still be paid.

Dell Rapids Public Releases “Return to Learn” Plan

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The Dell Rapids School Board held a special meeting on Monday, July 27th, to hear the “Return to Learn” plan for Dell Rapids School.  Superintendent Dr. Summer Schultz along with the three school principals, Drew Bunkers, Fran Ruesink, and Julie Wynja, all spoke about different aspects of the “Return to Learn” plan. 

The biggest take away from the discussions was that while the document may now be approved, that doesn’t mean it won’t change.  Things could change within the document as more information becomes available about the Covid virus, just as things have continually changed over the last four months.

Big Sioux Media recorded the meeting.  The start of the “Return to Learn” plan starts at the 9:25 mark of the video and goes until the 2:10:40 mark of the embedded video at the bottom of this story.

The “Return to Learn” document can be found by clicking this link.  The Dell Rapids School has also set up a Frequently Asked Questions page related to “Return to Learn”.  That page can be found by clicking here.

Dell Rapids School District Making Plans for In-Person Start to 2020-2021

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The Dell Rapids School District is making plans to start the 2020-2021 school year in person.  The administration has been working on the “Return to Learn” document, and Dell Rapids Superintendent Dr. Summer Schultz said that document is almost complete.

“We have established four tiers knowing that with a virus such as Covid, that this is a fluid situation.  We don’t know where we’ll be from one time to another.  And so we are going in on what we call level two.  We plan for on-site learning.  We expect our kids to be in school.  Now we also know that some students are considered medically fragile, and that’s just not the right environment for them.  We also know that some parents are going to choose to educate their children at home in what we’ll call ‘parallel instruction’, and that’s different than what we went into last spring,” said Dr. Schultz.

Under the level two, when kids are on site, if a parent decides to keep their child at home for “parallel learning”, Dr. Schultz said the parents will be taking on more of the ownership of the distance instruction.  She mentioned that the school is putting in devices, called Swivels, to help connect the home learners with what’s happening in the classroom.

The main areas still being determined are decisions on masks, transportation, and activities. 

“Masks are one of those areas from one school to the next can differ,” Dr. Schultz mentioned. “Masks are something that people have very strong opinions on, so we don’t want masks to be a deterant for someone to attend school or not to attend school,  But we also want to make sure we are providing the safest environment for our staff and for our students.  We are still trying to decide what that looks like when it comes to masks.”

Transportation and activities are the other two big areas that were still trying to be determined.  Dr. Schultz mentioned that keeping kids together in the same age/class group as much as possible throughout the day.  By doing that, the administration team is still trying to determine details of how students may be transported on buses before and after school, details of how before and after school Haven might work, and how students may travel to their different activities or sporting events.

The finalized “Return to Learn” document will be presented to the Dell Rapids Board of Education on Monday, July 27th.  Big Sioux Media will stream that meeting.

The school board has already made one change to the school year.  The first day of school has now been moved to Monday, August 31st with the 27th and 28th being orientation/open house activities for students and parents.

 

Faith, Family, and Community Help in Virus Experience

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“They kept on asking me do you have any shortness of breath, is it hard for you to breathe, are you coughing?  The only really time that I had any time of shortness of breath or coughing spell was when I found that they cancelled graduation.  And that was only because I was really upset, and I was crying.  I just felt bad that all the students, all the seniors, this just wasn’t a year that they had planned.  They had so many things taken away from them from prom, to last day of school, and now graduation,” explained Eve Pickard, along with her husband Sam, in an interview with Big Sioux Media.  “I felt responsible, and I felt horrible.”

Eve was officially diagnosed as positive for Covid-19 on Friday, May 15th, just one day before Dell Rapids High School was set to hold a smaller, individual, virtual-type graduation.  Hours later messages were sent from the school saying a staff member had tested positive and graduation would be cancelled.  The Pickards made the decision to go public.

“As the word was coming out, and the school was truly respecting Eve’s privacy in it.  People were asking questions like ‘Who is it?’ and ‘What do you know?’, just that stuff that kind of goes below the surface.  Eve made the comment to me, ‘I wanna say that it’s me because I don’t want people spreading rumors trying to figure out who it is.  It would just be easier if we came out and said hey it’s us.  I’m sorry.  I really love these kids.  I feel bad,'” said Sam.  “We just decided to be out there and let everybody know what was going on.”

From that point Eve took to isolation for the next week or so to fight the virus, while the rest of the family was put in quarantine in the house.  The Pickards also made the decision to journal the experience on Sam’s Facebook page daily to keep people updated on how Eve and the family was doing.  Eve mentioned that through her fight with the virus, she never had the serious symptoms that is typically reported in the media.  Eve said that some of the symptoms she fought were a fever, headache that felt similar to migraine, eye pain, some short-lived aches and pains in joints, and a loss of smell and taste throughout the life of the virus.

“Eve has commented that for her it was probably maybe the hardest part, worse than the headache, worse than anything is not being able to be around anybody is almost the worst part.  But for the rest of us, you don’t realize how the little things like I can run to the gas station, or I can order a pizza at Pizza Ranch, or I can pick up something at Papa’s, or I can do drive-thru at Dairy Queen, you just don’t realize how much just that break out of the house is appreciated.  The hard part was truly not leaving the house,” Sam said.  The Pickards spent the time doing games, puzzles, continued to work, and also did some work at the house.

“People were truly great.  People were dropping of care packages.  We had some friends drop off some Nerf guns.  There’s a certain Nerf bullet that hits harder than the others ones, so that got used the most.  We would ambush each other,” commented Sam.  “We still went on with our normal activities with the exception of actually seeing people.”  Sam also mentioned that they continued to monitor temperature and look for symptoms for everyone else in the family during the quarantine.

Faith and family are very important to the Pickards, and that part of their lives didn’t change.

“We were intentional about trying to find activities during the day,” Sam said. “We do a lot of stuff together as a family anyway.  Family is very important to us.  This just gave us another opportunity instead of complaining about ‘This is awful, why do we have to be here?’ to looking for ways to have fun as a family and try to pass the time.”

“There was confidence that we would get through it, not knowing what it might look like, but the belief that God is still in control and He is still over all of it, so we will get through it.  That was part of it.  Maybe, though as big or bigger, as Eve and I have talked, she made the comment numerous times, ‘if the worse thing that could happen is I die, I know where I’m going.  I’m not afraid of that.’  I think that there was not really a fear in it,” explained Sam. 

“I think for me there was just so many unknowns,” said Eve.  “I just kept on thinking no body knows what’s going on and no body has any answers, but then I thought, right now I’m not supposed to know the answers.  Right now I’m not supposed to know everything that’s going on, but I know God knows.  He’s in control, and He’s got this.”

The Pickards also mentioned that they were blessed with their church family and friends constantly checking on them and asking if there was anything they could do for the family.

Eve has made a full recovery from the virus since the positive test.  Both Sam and Eve said people should take care of themselves, don’t judge other people on how they approach the virus, try not to live in fear, calm down and try to look at things from a different perspective, but yet still take the virus seriously because even though some may not get serious symptoms, others do.  They also mentioned that going through and working with their family doctor played a big role in helping stop the spread because the family doctor has more of that personal relationship and history to help decide if a test is needed or not.

 

Signs of Mental Health Issues Heading into Summer after School Year Changes

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After three months of at-home schooling to close out the 2019-2020 school year, parents should still be on the lookout for mental health needs heading into the summer months after children have dealt with all of the changes.  Sara Holmberg, the Dell Rapids Middle School Counselor, shared thoughts with Big Sioux Media on mental health.

In her time talking with the students during the end of the school year, she mentioned that the biggest emotion the children were reporting was loneliness.  They were missing the sharing of the physical space with their friends even though they might still be connecting with them through social media or video games.  Some of the other issues that children may be dealing with are anxiety, depressive issues, sleeping issues, and having a hard time concentrating.

Holmberg mentioned that there are some key factors parents can watch.  Sleep disturbances, difficulty focusing, difficulty paying attention, disengaging from the family, and just not acting the way they had been acting in the weeks previous.

Another issue that might be a concern is screen time.  With the students having to spend three months on computers finishing the school year, that added a lot of screen time.  Holmberg said that parents have to try to find a balance in what’s working for each child because every child is different.

If someone does need help with mental health over the summer, Holmberg provided some great resources.

“There’s the 211 Helpline.  You can just dial 211.  It’s an anonymous helpline.  Your student can call it, or you can call it as a parent, and they will give you resources depending on what topic you’re calling about.  There’s the non-emergency contact information, which is the community one.  That’s at 367-7000,” Holmberg said.  “I know it’s a little difficult now with the hospitals and those sorts of things, but if you really feel like your child needs an evaluation or you’re concerned about their mental health, reaching out to your primary care physician.  They can give you some resources to either get your student evaluated at a community counciling sort of setting or whether it would be at Avera Mental Health.”

The full interview with Sara Holmberg can be found below:

City of Dell Rapids Makes Updates to City-Owned Facilities

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The City of Dell Rapids recently announced changes to city-owned facilities related to the Covid-19 virus on their Facebook page.

City Hall will open to the public starting on Monday, June 1st at 7:00 a.m.  There will also be updated hours of operations to allow for more public access in the morning outside of normal business hours.  The new hours will be Monday – Thursday from 7:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.  Fridays will be open from 8:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.  Only two patrons will be allowed within City Hall at any one time and visitor areas will be restricted.  Masks are encouraged to be worn, but will not be required.  City staff still encourages the public to continue to work with them through appointments, phone calls, emails, or online services to help continue slow the spread of the virus.  For any City of Dell Rapids service please call (605) 428-3595 or email cityadmin@cityofdellrapids.com.

The comfort stations at Rickeman Field and City Park are also now open as of Friday, May 22nd.  The comfort stations will be supplied with soap, and the public is encouraged to continue to practice good hygiene and hand washing when using the parks, amenities, and facilities.  There is also an ask to continue to practice good social distances while using the parks, trails, facilities throughout the summer months.

The city campground will not open until June 29th.  Reservations are now available for that opening date.  The campground, however, will be restricted.  Only the north part of the campground site (the old portion) will be available for camping.  The south portion of the campground (the new portion) are not completed yet due to the flooding from the fall of 2019.  The comfort station and shower facility will be open and available for camper use.

The Dell Rapids Carnegie Library will be working on a phased approach to opening.  Starting on Monday, June 1st, curbside pick-up of library materials will be available.  The library will also host the summer reading program online through the summer months.  The phased plan to opening could see a limited public opening of the building starting in early August.

The Dell Rapids City Council made the decision to keep the pool closed for the 2020 season.  The decision was made due to CDC guidelines for pool operations as well as staffing and budget considerations.  The pool closure will mean no swimming lessons this year, but the city is hopeful that they will be able to fully operate the pool in 2021.

Dell Rapids St Mary Carnival Making Changes for 2020

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The committee for the Dell Rapids St Mary annual carnival is making some changes for the carnival this year.

A big change this year due to the Covid-19 virus is that the carnival games will be cancelled for this year.  The committee determined there was no way to maintain social distancing practices and sanitizing game objects between use.

The current plan is to still hold the auction portion of the carnival on June 7th at 11:00 a.m., however that plan is still subject to change as more information becomes available in the coming days.

The committee is also selling approximately 10 silent auction items on their Facebook page.  There a couple of reasons for doing this.  First, it will reduce some of the silent auction inventory to allow that part of the carnival to be spread out more.  Also, it’s a way to test the feasibility of a virtual/online auction system.

To participate in the silent auction items on Facebook, join their page found here, https://www.facebook.com/St-Mary-Catholic-School-Carnival-Auction-177605032271194/

Everyone who plans to bid must have an auction number.  Please contact Amada Geraets (605-940-4637) for that number.  Bidders can comment on the items to increase the bid, similar to the silent auction in the gym.  Bids must increase by $1.00.  The deadline for the bids is Wednesday, May 20th, at 4:00 p.m.  If you do not wish to have your bid public in a comment, you can message the page or a Carnival Committee member with your Auction number and bid amount, and they will comment it for you.

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