Due to Johnson County's COVID-19 outbreak, state grants Iowa City school district permission to start the school year online-only

The Iowa Department of Education granted the Iowa City school district permission to move to an online format Wednesday after the district made a second request to do so due to the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak in Johnson County.

The Iowa City Community School District's Board of Directors will discuss the next steps at a special board meeting at 9 a.m. Saturday.

"At this time, no decision has been made to make a change to the start of our school year," officials wrote in a Thursday release. "The options will be reviewed and discussed during the special Board Meeting before an official decision is made."

► The latest, Thursday:334 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Johnson County, among 1,475 statewide

With the state's permission, Iowa City schools could start its school year with two weeks of online learning. Currently, parents have the option to opt in to an online learning program or into standard enrollment.

In its Thursday message, the school district said as the positivity rate is expected to continue rising, and with support from the Johnson County Public Health Department, it submitted the request Wednesday. 

Johnson County Public Health Department Director wrote in a letter of support for the school district's request Wednesday that the county's 14-day positivity rates have been slowly climbing since July 30 and are expected to continue rising. It was 13.9% on Wednesday, Koch said.

On July 30, the state said school districts in counties that have a 14-day positivity rate of 15% could be approved for a two-week period of online classes.

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Koch added that the 14-day positivity rates will rise at a quicker pace in the next few days because single-day positivity rates "are well above 20%, with a one day rate of 27% on (Sunday)."

He wrote that the increase is primarily among people between the ages of 18 to 24 and is due to thousands of University of Iowa students returning to Iowa City.

"I cannot project a date that the [14-day] positivity rate will exceed 15%, but it will happen and I prefer to be proactive vs. reactive in supporting ICCSD in seeking a waiver to move to online learning," he wrote.

The public health department director also wrote he believes the county's positivity rates are "skewed low" on the state's COVID-19 reporting website.

"We know for certain that many positive cases in the student population are being reported to the county or state of their permanent home address and not their university address," he wrote. "This sends the positive test results to their local health department, as well as being assigned incorrectly on the https://coronavirus.iowa.gov site, thus artificially lowering the positivity rates for Johnson County."

In her response granting the school district's request, the Iowa Department of Education Director, Dr. Ann Lebo, wrote that because the 14-day positivity rate is expected to continue climbing, it would allow the district to start with online learning.

According to Lebo's letter, the department also expects that the district's in-person extracurricular activities would move to an online format for the duration of the two-week period. She wrote that the approval of their request was dependent on temporarily stopping in-person activities.

In its message Thursday, the school district said it would provide families with information about athletics and other activities by Friday afternoon.

"We have been preparing for this possibility, recognizing the extremely fluid nature of this situation," district officials wrote. "The health of our students and staff remains the driving force in our decision-making."

This is a developing story. Check back for more.

Hillary Ojeda covers breaking news and public safety for the Press-Citizen. Reach her at 319-339-7345, hojeda@press-citizen.com or follow her on Twitter at @hillarymojeda.

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