Sarah Ebeling | Managing Editor
For weeks now, experts have been advising people to be prepared as COVID-19 (coronavirus) has been spreading through the nation.
And on Thursday, March 12, Governor Kristi Noem announced that eight cases had been confirmed in South Dakota, including one death.
Locally, a Hartford resident has tested positive for coronavirus. Although the resident had not been on school property or to any school events since his diagnosis, but because the resident has school age children, West Central School District made the decision on Tuesday, March 10, to cancel classes on Wednesday, March 11 so that they could properly clean the school. That afternoon, officials made the decision to remain closed for the rest of the week, giving the custodial staff time to deep clean the entire district.
All activities, meetings and practices were also canceled through Sunday, March 15.
According to superintendent Brad Berens, although the South Dakota Department of Health has determined that schools need not close, they are committed to completing a thorough cleaning of the district’s buildings and its transportation vehicles. He noted that by closing it ensures they have enough time to sanitize the building in a way they are confident the buildings are ready to come back to.
Berens said the school district is working closely with the South Dakota Department of Health, the Governor’s office and the Minnehaha County Sheriff’s office.
The West Central School’s custodial staff of 10 has been working to sanitize every classroom and area in every building throughout the district. According to Berens, they are doing the same cleaning protocol on the district’s busses and vans too.
“We are doing a three-phase cleaning this time. We are hand-wiping items twice with two different chemicals and then we follow up with an electro static sprayer that uses chlorine tabs to kill bacteria,” he explained.
Knowing that the custodians and staff were hard at work on Wednesday, March 11, the Hartford Pizza Ranch, owned by Adam and Kim DeJong, donated 12 pizzas and chicken to the employees.
“They are in a tough situation. We are all in this community and we are all here to support each other,” said Adam.
Tri-Valley School Superintendent Mike Lodmel noted that on Wednesday, classes were dismissed at 1 p.m. for teacher in-service and that although their building is cleaned daily and nightly, they would be going the “extra mile” to disinfect the school and all items within it. With no school scheduled for Thursday, March 19 and Friday, March 20, Tri-Valley will begin another deep cleaning Wednesday, March 18.
As of press-time, the South Dakota High School Activities Association had not canceled any of the state basketball tournaments scheduled for both this weekend and next. However, they are encouraging those who are vulnerable or at-risk, such as older adults and individuals with serious chronic medical conditions, to avoid large events and cheer on their teams from home.