Schools get funds for COVID testing

Steele County schools have received more than $385,000 from the state, grant money that will be used to pay for staffing or to buy supplies for COVID-19 testing – including the test kits themselves and personal protective equipment.
Owatonna Public School District was awarded $266,217.50; Blooming Prairie, Medford and New Richland-Hartland-Ellendale-Geneva districts each received $40,000.
At last week’s deadline for applications, 86% of school districts in the state had applied for the school testing program grant funds. All told, the requests amount to nearly $50 million;
the funding was designated by the State of Minnesota from the Epidemiology Laboratory Capacity Reopening School Grant, supported by the federal American Rescue Plan Act of 2021.
In addition to that funding, the state is the first in the nation to provide the school testing program, allowing all schools to have continued access to five types of tests at no cost. It’s up to each school to determine which test best fits the needs of its students; schools can request COVID-19 tests daily.
Owatonna and NRHEG have already ordered tests from the state; BP and Medford have not.
At Monday night’s Owatonna School Board meeting, Superintendent Jeff Elstad said that the district’s COVID-positive percentage had dropped to 0.29%. The number of cases in buildings is dropping, he said.
It’s a different situation in New Richland, where the NRHEG secondary school saw a jump in cases mid-month. Cases in the elementary building have stayed consistent, said Superintendent Michael Meihak.
The district also saw an increase in staff members needing to isolate, something Meihak called “alarming” in an update to parents on Oct. 11. If those numbers continue to climb, potential steps include mask requirements and distance learning for a short period of time.
As of Monday, no changes had been implemented at NRHEG schools. Masks are still encouraged but not required, and learning is taking place in person.