Thursday marked the last day of classes for students in the of USD 383 Manhattan/Ogden Schools before Spring Break.
On KMAN’s In Focus Wednesday, Superintendent Dr. Marvin Wade said it’s a welcome opportunity for students and teachers to hit the reset button and get a break from school. But given the high amounts of illness that seems to have hit the district this semester, it’s also a good opportunity to get the schools cleared out.
“Some of us are looking forward to getting the schools cleared out, really doing a deep clean. It’s a great opportunity to just get in and disinfect and knock down some of this crud people are fighting,” he said.
Likewise the district is putting the call out to parents to do the same over break.
“We’re asking parents to disinfect, wash, clean backpacks, coats, gloves, hats, water bottles and P.E. clothes, etc. over Spring Break,” he said.
The district has worked closely with the health department on monitoring illnesses and are keeping an eye on for the potential spread of the COVID-19 strain of coronavirus. While no cases exist locally and the thread for the spread remains low, Wade says it’s important for the district to be on top of monitoring since so many people will travel away from Manhattan next week.
“Who’s going where and when and when they come back, what conversations we have with them. All different kinds of scenarios with a college town and with military there’s a lot of people going different places,” he said.
Currently no cases of the strain have been confirmed in Riley County or in Kansas.
