Spring Green, Wisconsin
Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2020 Vol. 1, No. 4 Free, Single-Copy
River Valley School District moves to all-virtual instruction
Iowa County sees COVID-19 spike Press Release via Iowa County
Photo by Quincy Aston-Lott, Managing Editor River Valley School District announced earlier this week that all schools in the district will be virtual until the end of November. Due to an increase in COVID-19 positive cases and exposures within the District, the entire River Valley District moved to a full virtual model beginning Tuesday, Nov. 10 and continuing until Monday, Nov. 30. All high school co-curricular activities will continue as scheduled. The school district asks that, “parents of students exhibiting flu-like symptoms are asked to continue to contact a school nurse and primary care provider.” In addition, if a student has an exposure to COVID-19, parents/guardians should continue to contact school nursing staff or the building secretary. Valley Sentinel spoke with River Valley School District Administrator Loren Glasbrunner about the move to all-virtual instruction. Valley Sentinel: What factors will be used to determine how students will
finish the rest of the semester, after Nov. 30? Loren Glasbrunner: Daily, our district team (administration with our school nurse) analyzes our absences to build statistics around COVID-19. We are able to investigate this data for each building and contact health departments from Sauk, Richland, Iowa, and Dane Counties for support, if necessary. Data drives the decisions on which mode of instruction we choose for the families in our district. VS: Do you believe that the intervening time will be long enough to stall community spread and bring students back into the physical classroom? Should we expect students to be back in the classroom this calendar year? LG: We cannot “stall community spread” without community help. Our goal is to teach students in person. We cannot predict what data will look like
in the weeks to come, but we certainly hope for the best. Our community needs to support CDC guidelines for the safety of our students. VS: You stated several times in your releases that the determinations to close individual schools are based on “COVID-19 investigations,” what does that entail? LG: We gain information from families, clinics, and the counties of our students. This information is used to start an investigation to determine which staff/students may have been affected. Building administration and our school nurse investigates the implications of a particular exposure. VS: With respect to contact tracing, while you’ve stated there has been an increase in cases and exposures, is there any indication at this time that any COVID-19 transmission is happen-
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Single Family housing development set for Plain Emilie Conlon, Editor-in-Chief Property on the south side of Plain is set to be developed for housing by the end of next year, developers and village officials hope increased housing will keep younger residents in the village. The 40 acre parcel of land will be developed into 47 half acre lots, and will serve as the housing development to be called Fairway Heights. Kevin Kraemer of Logtown Development will be working on the lots to prepare them for building such as installing roads, water and sewer lines, and said the design for those should be complete later this month.
Kraemer said he expects to open the bidding process for early construction in February. Logtown Development will only be preparing the lots for building, and will not be involved in building of homes, homeowners can choose developers once the land has been purchased. Kraemer said he believes the development will open up opportunities for new residents of the village or provide better housing solutions for current residents. “Its going to give someone that wants to move into the area or is from the area and wants to build a new house, it will give them more choices,” said
Kraemer. “It’s meant as a development opportunity to the village to keep some of the young talent here that might leave if they don’t have an opportunity to build a house.” Ray Ring, village president echoed the village’s desire to keep the village competitive in the housing market. “A robust, thriving community with an array of businesses is important to retaining its charm, uniqueness and services,” said Ring. “The battle that’s undermining the value of living in small towns and rural areas are reflected in the youth that live here. The lack of residential lots is one of the reasons why adult children, even mine, relocate
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Iowa County – The Health Department confirms over the weekend we added 73 additional cases bringing the current COVID-19 confirmed case count in Iowa County to 758. Cases are in all age ranges and across the entire county. These recent cases are in persons in the following age ranges: 0-17 (13), 18-25 (10), 26-35 (15), 36-45 (12), 46-55 (12), 56-65 (5), 66-75 (2) and 76-85 (4). The number of individuals that have recovered is 400, meaning 358 active cases. Iowa County status remains classified as VERY HIGH activity. “We are experiencing the highest volume of cases in Iowa County yet and it is not slowing down”, reports Debbie Siegenthaler, Director, Iowa County Health Department. With 73 new cases this weekend, the ability we have to keep up with contact tracing is greatly diminished”, added Siegenthaler. The Health Department has implemented crisis standards for contact tracing protocol which means that their priority is to contact positive cases only. As a result, they are unable to reach out to close contacts. “If you are awaiting a test result, please be sure to remain quarantined. If you test positive, please isolate yourself and let your close contacts know to self quarantine for 14 days and consider being tested”, added Siegenthaler. For more information, please visit https://www.dhs.wisconsin.gov/publications/p02599.pdf “The rate of increasing cases is a concern on several additional fronts”, continued Siegenthaler. “We continue to be very concerned about hospital capacity, locally and regionally. At Uplands Hills Health in Dodgeville, the metric for staffing status indicates the number of available staff to care for the volume of patients is red. Even more troubling, are the regional hospital capacity metrics and the information that some of the hospitals that serve our residents are reporting difficulty getting supplies they need, staff shortages and limited bed availability.” Our regional health care infrastructure metric represents regional hospital bed use and is currently yellow, as 84% of regional hospital beds are in use. In addition, 85% of total regional ICU beds are in use. See more at DHS https://www. dhs.wisconsin.gov/covid-19/disease. htm “The fast spread of the virus is making it difficult for schools, healthcare facilities and businesses to run effectively. We have 42% of recent cases who have no idea where they contracted the virus. Anytime you leave your home, you should anticipate that you will
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