The school board accepted the waiver granted by the Iowa Department of Education to start the school year fully online in a school board meeting held on Aug. 29. The start of school date will still be Sept. 8, but all instruction will be provided remotely for two weeks.

All activities including athletics will be allowed to continue until Sept. 7, and then will be suspended for the two-week online period unless the district wins the lawsuit on Sept. 3 to possibly overturn the suspension.

At their recent meeting on Sept. 1, the school board ruled that a decision on whether or not to continue the hybrid model in an online format will be reviewed every two weeks, starting Sept. 8.

“For the first [extension discussion] on the eighth, what we would really have to do is just rely on that positivity rate,” said ICCSD Interim Superintendent Matt Degner. “So if we got to the eighth and positivity rates are still where we’re at today at 23% we’d say we’re applying for another waiver, and when we know we’ll get back to you with that response [from the Department of Education].”

This story is still developing. Check in with WSS for updates.