THOMPSON, N.D. – Twenty-four Thompson Public School kindergarten students are quarantined after a member of the class tested positive for COVID-19.
The students, one of three sections of kindergarteners in Thompson, began quarantining on Monday, Aug. 31, and will not return to school until Monday, Sept. 14, said John Maus, Thompson superintendent. The Thompson School District was notified on Sunday, Aug. 30, that a kindergarten student had tested positive for COVID-19, Maus said.
School administrators on Sunday night decided to err on the side of caution, so quarantined all 24 students in the section of kindergarten in which the student tested positive, he said.
School in Thompson, which has a total of 71 kindergarten students, opened its doors for the 2020-2021 school year on Thursday, Aug. 20. The school has 607 students in K-12.
Thompson Public School has seating charts for the kindergarten students and divides the class into “pods,” but even with those protocols in place, social distancing children at that age is difficult, Maus said.
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“They are 5 years old, and it’s tough to keep them apart during the day,” he said.
Parents were understanding of the quarantine, he said.
“It seems like they saw this coming,” Maus said.
Because COVID-19 numbers in Grand Forks County have been high, Thompson Public School administrators weren’t surprised that a student tested postive, either.
“We knew it was going to happen. We didn’t know when,” he said.
The quarantined kindergarten students will do learning packets until they return to school, Maus said.
Thompson Public School is prepared to do distance learning or hybrid learning –a combination of distance and in-school learning – if necessary, Maus said.
