As outbreaks emerge, Minnesota school leaders put their COVID contingency plans to the test

Like most school administrators, Dan Deitte figured COVID-19 would end up somehow disrupting the new school year.

He didn't expect it would force him to cancel the first day of school.

"You get to the night before the first day and you think you are good to go," said Deitte, superintendent of the Minneota and Ivanhoe school districts in southwest Minnesota, "and then this happens."

School leaders across Minnesota spent the summer making plans for multiple scenarios, from distance learning to socially distanced classrooms, and the possibility they'd have to quickly pivot from one format to another. Now, as classes begin, many are putting those plans to the test when COVID-19 cases pop up and have the potential to spread among students and staff.

By Sept. 8, when most schools were just beginning to start classes, state health officials had already tracked 236 school-related COVID-19 cases. Only two school buildings had more than five cases, but even single cases elsewhere resulted in other teachers, principals and school staff having to quarantine at home. In Minneota and Ivanhoe, a single case spiraled into the district's entire administrative staff stuck in quarantine the night before school was set to start.

As they respond to each new case or outbreak, state health and education officials, along with local school leaders and public health departments, are racing to get one step ahead of the virus. They're also trying to share the rapidly changing updates as quickly as possible, to avoid confusion and dispel myths about what happens when COVID-19 shows up at school.

It's a team approach that aims to prevent a situation where school administrators are expected to make big decisions on their own about opening or closing schools, like they do when a storm is coming.

School leaders find out about cases of the virus directly from the person who tested positive or knows they were exposed, or from state health officials. In either case, calls are made quickly to activate teams of responders positioned around the state that include school administrators, local and state health officials and the state Department of Education.

Susan Klammer, an epidemiologist with the Minnesota Department of Health, said her department helps school leaders piece together the puzzle of how the virus may have spread. If a teacher tested positive, for example, they'll try to sort out which students spent time with that teacher in the classroom — and how much time, and how close they were. Often working with a school nurse, administrators and health officials comb through whatever information they have to determine who may need to quarantine or whether there may be a larger outbreak than originally thought.

"We try to gather as much of that information as possible, so we can begin making those public health recommendations," Klammer said.

Then, schools notify people who were in close contact with the person, letting them know they should quarantine at home for two weeks. Because of privacy laws, those notices do not include specifics about who tested positive, and schools are not required to provide information about the specific cases to the broader school community. Klammer said the Health Department is working on a public database of COVID cases in schools, which should be ready by the end of September.

In Minneota and Ivanhoe, that contact-tracing process revealed a complicated web of infections. A week after the first cases prompted the district to delay classes, there was a second outbreak among teachers at Lincoln Elementary in Ivanhoe. With half of the building's teaching staff in quarantine, the start of classes was delayed again.

In some cases, schools' decisions to delay opening, or to shift to hybrid or distance learning, may be prompted by staffing shortages. Community case counts also play a key role under orders from Gov. Tim Walz.

Often a single positive test, or even a few tests, don't mean that a school needs to shut down, or that many people need to quarantine. Each situation is different, depending on who is involved, where and with whom they spent time, and other factors. Klammer said there's no magic number of cases that prompts an action, though if 5% of students and staff are out with flu-like symptoms — COVID or otherwise — schools are required to report that information to state health officials for further investigation.

As cases multiply, health officials talk through options with school leaders.

"Is there a need for the learning model to be shifted?" Klammer said. "Are there staffing concerns that impact their ability to have school?"

About 40 miles north and east of Minneota, Montevideo Public Schools Superintendent Luther Heller has already been through that process. On a Friday in late August, three days before his district was set to start in-person and hybrid classes, he got word that two staff members had tested positive.

That night, Heller had to make a tough call. There would be no school the next day, and the rest of the week would be spent in distance learning. A week later, students were invited back for hybrid instruction, but rising case counts meant a full, in-person return was off the table, at least for now.

Heller said he's grateful he was able to quickly enlist the help of outside experts. He said other school leaders should seek the same kind of assistance — and know that a situation that seems distant can suddenly become very real.

"Most of us have watched the [virus] numbers since early March and that's all they've been, is just numbers," he said. "And all of a sudden, those numbers had names to them. When it starts hitting people that you know and you associate with, then it puts everything into a different perspective."