Staff, Students, Parents and Montezuma Community,
As was stated in our Return to Learn plan earlier this fall, we anticipated positive cases this school year. Not only bringing kids back in our building, but in general, they are just hanging out more and some of it, we simply cannot control.
We daily make decisions that are in the best overall intentions for our student body. Recently, we have had some positive tests in our 7th and 8th grades that created the need to quarantine some students based on close contact within classrooms.
Therefore, our administration moved our 7th & 8th grades to a Hybrid Model for two weeks so we could control social distancing within our classrooms by reducing class sizes.
This was not an easy decision to make but based on the current data and recommendation from Public Health, it was the decision to make.
The hope was to slow the spread in these two grades.
This decision created the new dilemma regarding our junior high sports. We again analyzed current data, recommendations from the nurse and Public Health, and met as an administrative team to determine what, if any, impact this would have on our junior high sports season.
At this time, the decision has been made to have junior football take a quarantine break.
Football was not the cause for other students needing to quarantine. However, with the number of students out and the cases still pending, we feel this is the best decision to follow at this time.
A two-week pause will cover the incubation period discussed by Public Health and a way to track if the Hybrid model helped slow the spread.
As we proceed, we will follow the precedence already set by the Iowa Sports Unions this summer as we differentiate between junior high and high school sports.
We will look at every sport and season on a case by case basis to ensure our decisions both value the experiences and life skills learned from our extracurriculars as well as the safety and continuation of having students in-school and learning.
Montezuma’s junior high football quarantine will date back to the last time they practiced, September 2 through Tuesday, September 15th.
JH Football practices will begin again on Wednesday, September 16th, after school.
The first game will be on September 21st at Iowa Valley.
As always, thanks for all you do and being flexible with us as we work through this school year.
Sincerely,
Tim Burgess
Montezuma Activities Director