Increase in Virus Cases Causes Change to District Schedules

The Watonga School District moved last week to an altered schedule for its middle school and high schools because of the rise of COVID-19 cases in the county and across the state.

“These are trying and challenging times for all of us,” a statement on the district’s web site stated. “We have seen a recent spike locally in the number of Covid-19 cases, and this has meant a growing number of students and staff who have had to quarantine due to contact tracing. We have already lost several middle school basketball games due to issues related to Covid-19. (Nov. 16) we had over 100 students who were not at school due to Covid-19-related issues.”

The changes take effect after Thanksgiving break and include:

All high school and middle school students will be on virtual learning on Mondays. The rest of the week, students will adhere to an A-B schedule.

Group A will attend inperson classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays; Group B will attend inperson classes on Wednesdays and Fridays.

“It is imperative that students attend school on the days corresponding to their groups,” the statement said. “We understand that no system or plan is perfect right now. Thank you for continuing to work with us on this journey that we are on.”

With basketball and wrestling seasons getting ready to start, the district wanted to accomplish two things.

First, it wanted to try and contain and minimize the spread of Covid-19. Second, it is trying to do everything it can to allow its winter-season activities to continue and be completed.

The schedule changes “will minimize the risk of students and staff being caught in contact tracing,” the statement said. “It will also decrease class size, which will allow us to have better social distancing practices in the classroom and during the school day. We worked hard in organizing the groups so that basketball and wrestling teams would be in the same group, and also that siblings from different buildings were in the same group.”

The district still expects students to log into their classes when they are not on campus. If they are not logged on to their classes at the specified times, they will be marked absent.

The district still will provide lunch for students who are virtual that day and will provide those details soon. We will be providing details on that soon.

You can contact the district with further questions: 580-623-7364.