Polk School District closes schools next week, will return with 4 day week

The Polk School District announced Wednesday afternoon that students will stay at home next week and will transition to a 4 day school week when they return the following week.

In a statement via press release, Superintendent Laurie Atkins said that while this may be an inconvenience to families, she thanked them for patience and understanding in their attempt to keep students in school.

“We wholeheartedly believe that students learn best when receiving direct instruction from our teachers in the traditional classroom setting,” Atkins said in the press release. “However, due to the increased guidelines from the Department of Public Health regarding mandatory quarantines for teachers and students related to positive cases and exposures, we are being forced to alter out plan for instruction moving forward.”

Here are the schedule changes:

  • The week of August 17-21 will be a student break to allow for teachers to plan and edit their online classrooms to better serve students in the classroom, as well as, those students that may have to miss school due to a mandatory quarantine period. Students will NOT report to school this week.
  • Beginning the week of August 24, Polk School District will begin four-day weeks for students where they only attend Tuesday – Friday. Mondays will allow for teachers to create digital lessons and videos, while allowing for an additional day of deep cleaning of our buildings. Students will NOT report to school on Mondays beginning August 24.

You can read the entire press release here.