Minneapolis Public Schools has made the decision that starting on January 13th, and continuing to January 27th, there will be distance learning due to the recent outbreak of COVID 19 cases. Students are encouraged to stay home, although they will still be allowed in the school to do online classes, receive academic support, covid test kits, and meals. It was stated in an email sent to students and families that the decision to go online was largely because of the increasing number of staff absences and more difficulty in transportation due to the pandemic. 

Although there is not much information on what online classes will look like, and is likely to vary by teacher, it is apparent they will remain similar to the same schedule of in person classes. Attendance will be taken every day, and teachers will remain in the building to teach and give academic support to students that need it. 

Friday, January 13th’s schedule looked somewhat different than what classes starting on the 18th are predicted to look like. Staff are still getting adjusted to online learning, and making steps to change lesson plans to fit virtual learning. 

One thing that will stay the same is that sports will continue to practice. After-school extra-curricular activities will no longer be meeting in person, although they will vary by activity whether or not they will meet virtually. 

In the weeks leading up to the decision of going back online, there was an overwhelming number of students and teachers absent. Students noticed that in many classes, there were half to a majority of students out, a large part of this due to covid and covid exposures. 

This decision of locking down Minneapolis Public Schools is not alone in attempts to handle the overwhelming number of covid cases, specifically from the omicron variant that has taken the world by storm in a few short weeks.

In Minnesota alone overall as of January 14th, has 11, 560 new cases reported by the MN Department of Health. In the US, as of January 13th, reported by the New York Times there were upwards of 800,000 new cases, by far the most covid cases reported since the start of the pandemic. New restrictions will require customers to show proof of vaccination to enter restaurants, bars and other establishments starting January 19th.  

Although there is not much information yet on what the next two weeks will look like, students are recommended to regularly check their emails and google classrooms for updates on how teachers will handle curriculum.