Drummond Schools votes to go back to online learning beginning Monday

DRUMMOND – After an outbreak that has put six of its staff members into quarantine due to exposure to Covid-19, Drummond Schools will be going to an online learning format starting Tuesday.

According to an email from Drummond School Superintendent Christina Barbachano, the decision was made at an emergency school board meeting Saturday night. Monday will serve as a PIR day for the instructors with students attending a half-day Tuesday from 7:50 to 11 a.m. Wednesday and Thursday will be full days of online instruction.

"We will get through this together,” stated Barbachano via text message Saturday night. “(The) Drummond Schools staff will work over the course of this next week to meet the needs of their students as best they can. On many occasions they have risen to challenges and I anticipate they will do just as well this time. As more logistics and adjustments are made, we will work to get that information out to our school community as quickly as we can. Many community members have reached out to offer their support and help and we are grateful for them. We hope this week of remote learning gives us time to make necessary adjustments should we need to do this again.

“Fingers crossed that we will be back at school on Monday the 26th.”

The board will tentatively meet again Thursday evening at 5:30 to reassess the need for another week of online learning. That move will be dependent on the quarantined staff and students and any number of positive cases of Covid-19 that may exist at the school.

The meeting came a day after the announcement of the six staff members that had been exposed and told to quarantine after they had been in contact with a staff member or student who had tested positive for the virus. According to a post on the Drummond School Facebook page, that person had attended the CloseUp Dinner & Auction October 14th and while wearing a mask and social distancing, did expose a few staff members. Two other staff members were quarantined when they had direct exposure from the previous day's confirmed positive case.

The email went on to state that the high school sports schedule would remain intact, with opposing schools being given the option of playing in Drummond or not. No concessions will be sold at the home games (Oct. 20 vs. Granite and Oct. 22 vs. Darby).

Drummond will also limit the number of spectators at events, as per direction from the county health nurse and board of health based on guidelines from the MHSA for the postseason tournaments issued last week. Senior players will get four tickets each while all others will get two.

NOTE - This article was edited to clarify the ticket limit per player for Drummond home volleyball matches.