The Exira-Elk Horn Kimballton School District’s Leadership Team has finalized the District’s Return to Learn Plan. According to information posted on the District’s website, and in a letter sent to parents of students in the District, classes will be held (at least for the first few weeks of the school year), on Mondays,Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays with the expectation (but not a requirement) that all students and staff will utilize facial coverings.

Wednesdays will be used to deep clean the building, support those families choosing remote learning, support students who are not engaging or are struggling with the learning, and provide professional learning for staff. Some students may be asked to attend on Wednesdays, but they would be in one-on-one or very small group situations. All students not required to be in school will be learning remotely on Wednesdays.

A vast majority of Exira-EHK District parents have indicated in a survey, that they intend to send their children to school, but home-schooling or, online learning is an option. And, just like with the Griswold School District, there will be a stipulation that those who choose to home-school, must commit for a quarter or a semester. They cannot change plans or move back and forth between on-site and online learning.

A parent meeting will be held late next week. Details with regard to transportation and the cafeteria, as well as large group gatherings involving P-E, Band and Chorus, are still be worked out.

The State of Iowa’s Coronavirus dashboard (as of just before 6-a.m. today, Thursday), shows six more people have died from the virus since Wednesday, and 417 more Iowans have tested positive. The State’s death toll from the virus stands at 814. The total number of positive COVID-19 cases is 40,210. The IDPH says 432,834 Iowans have been tested. Of those, 391,132 have tested negative for COVID-19 (an increase of 4,489). Officials said also, 28,854 persons (nearly 250 more than Wednesday) affected by the virus, have recovered from the virus it.

Hospitalization data show: eight more persons with COVID-19 were hospitalized, for a total of 232; 73 individuals are in an ICU; 33 were admitted, and 32 were on a ventilator. In RMCC Region 4 (southwest/western IA), six people are hospitalized with COVID-19, four are in an ICU, there was one new hospital admission, one person remains on a ventilator.

Long-Term Care (LTC) data show 20 outbreaks, 516 staff/patients have tested positive for the virus, 135 have recovered and 436 have died.

Here is the latest data for confirmed cases and the number of persons recovered from COVID-19, in Cass and surrounding counties, plus any change in the numbers (Highlighted number indicate a change from Wednesday):

• Cass: 30 positive cases, 28 recovered
• Adair: 21 positive cases, 16 recovered
• Adams: 12 cases (recovered data still not available from the IDPH)
• Audubon: 22 cases, (No recovery data available)
• Guthrie: 112 cases, 66 recovered
• Montgomery: 25 cases, 16 recovered
• Pottawattamie: 961 cases, 720 recovered
• Shelby County: 126 cases, 124 recovered

(Radio Iowa) – The state court system is moving closer to returning to holding jury trials across the state. Supreme Court Justice Matthew McDermott co-chaired the committee which reviewed and made recommendations on the issue. He says it’s important to have the jurors in the courtrooms. “There have been some states that have tried remote video conferencing jury trials — and I think there has been very limited or mixed success with most of those,” McDermott says. The Supreme Court released a list of guidelines Wednesday it will follow for jury trials, and McDermott says they could be put in place soon.  “It’s our hope that the jury trial process will get going in the next couple of months, ” he says. “We think that we have these protocols in place that can keep people safe and we can start giving people their right to a jury trial that is enshrined in the constitution.”

McDermott says many of the protocols are things we’ve already seen as other businesses and services opened back up. “Obviously everyone has had to deal with it and I don’t there’s anything that’s going to particularly shock anyone with any of the rules we have here. I think most of them are kind of standard practice now,” McDermott says. One of the biggest challenges the court system faces is there are different types of courthouses in the 99 counties of the state. “It’s really adopting all of them for 99 counties where these trials will take place,” according to McDermott. “That could be a challenge — because you have courthouses like the one in Polk County that is devoted almost solely to court operations. And then you have courthouse in more rural counties that might have a lot of other operations going on to — the county auditors office and recorder’s office and things like that.”

He says those smaller courthouses pose a social distancing challenge. “Those courtrooms are perhaps a little bit smaller and so just addressing all of the different iterations of the courthouses that our out there. It’s going to be challenging — but I think that we are up to it,” McDermott says. He says one big issue is keeping the juror’s space six feet apart. “Jurors might have to sit in the gallery. They might have to sit in chairs that are situated outside the regular jury box. The hope is that we can get everyone in our courtrooms to make that happen. Otherwise were are going to have to find or try to find spaces outside of courthouses to hold trials,” McDermott says.

He says there will be some differences in how jurors are called to serve. He says they will have to call them in smaller groups and keep them out of the courthouses for as long as they can until they have to come in. “Like most other businesses we are going to have markings on floors, doing all of the regular measures that everyone seems to be doing with keeping spacing and wearing masks and things like that,” McDermott says.  They may summon larger jury pools than in the past in anticipation of some jurors not being able to come in because of virus symptoms. All of the proposed guidelines for restarting jury trials are on the judicial system’s website.