SE Iowa News

Iowa school districts are a model for districts around the nation that haven't reopened to in-person education, an official from the U.S. Department of Education said. 

“You have managed to reopen in a way that has paid great attention to detail,” Frank Brogan, assistant U.S. secretary for elementary and secondary education, told Radio Iowa, speaking of the Cardinal Community School District in southeast Iowa. “And everything has been incredibly, thoughtfully done — well thought through.”

The district has approximately 1,000 students, with 20 quarantining due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Cindy Green, the district's middle school principal said. 

“It’s just been constant problem solving. We’ve never done this before. We’ve never taught during a pandemic. Our parents have never parented during a pandemic,” she told Radio Iowa. “Our students have never gone to school during a pandemic so ‘Flexibility and Grace’ are kind of our mottos this year.”

While going to school in person, wearing a mask is the new norm. 

“No one knew how it was going to go and I think a lot of people didn’t expect to actually stay in school for very long and I know there are some schools who have had to like completely shut down for a while,” Katelyn McDaniel, a senior at the high school, told Radio Iowa. “But we haven’t and I feel like everything is just a lot better than what was going to be expected, like everything’s just working out really well this year.”