Students at Franklin Middle School and Lincoln High School will remain in the hybrid learning model until Monday, March 1. Thief River Falls Superintendent Donita Stepan made the announcement to families in an email Wednesday, Feb. 10.
Initially, secondary students were set to return to full-time in-person learning Tuesday, Feb. 16. However, in one week, the district has gone from one to 10 positive student cases, five students quarantined to 153 students quarantined, zero positive staff cases to four positive staff cases, and one staff member quarantined to 21 staff quarantined. Several Thief River Falls sports teams have been quarantined as well, and some events have been cancelled.
Most of the spread seems to be at the secondary level, said Stepan, who noted this will give the district an additional two weeks to hopefully slow this spread. The district will then evaluate its plans to determine if the students will return to full-time in-person learning at that time.
Pre-kindergarten to fifth grade classes and the Area Learning Center will all remain full-time in-person unless quarantines are in effect.