FOREST LAKE, Minn. — Forest Lake Area Schools says all students will transition to distance learning starting today.
"For the last number of weeks, we've faced one, to two, to three cancelations everyday, in fact I've got five bus routes without a permanent driver," said Superintendent Steve Massey. "We're juggling daily to fill routes."
Superintendent Massey says the school district has 81 bus routes, but has been dealing with an ongoing shortage of drivers.
"We're doing everything we can to recruit bus drivers," he said.
He says the school district reached the point where they decided to go to distance learning due to the overwhelming cancellations and traffic concerns with parents drop-offs.
"We had one elementary school with cars backed up to a busy two lane highway in the fog, Wednesday morning, and it just isn't safe," he said. "It pains me to be in this situation, but at the same time we have to be able to address the safety concern around drop-offs," he said.
In a statement posted to Facebook, Senator Karin Housley joined a growing list of concerned parents saying;
"I am deeply concerned with the staffing shortages our schools are facing, and how it directly affects our students and their parents. Forest Lake Area Schools is joining the growing list of schools that are either extending vacations, or going back to distance learning, and that is causing great worry and distress for our local families! After a full year of disruption to in-classroom learning, it’s incredibly important that our kids are back in classrooms and engaging in in-person learning."
While the district says childcare for elementary students who are already enrolled in school-age care will be available at the three inclement weather sites of Forest View, Wyoming and Lino Lakes elementary schools, they're hoping to recruit more drivers, and bring students back to in-person learning next month.
"This is short term and we fully hope to be in person on January 4th and thereafter," he said.
Email sent to parents from the school district:
We have additional information to share with you regarding the temporary distance learning that begins tomorrow:
School meal pickup
Starting Thursday, December 16th, the Nutrition Services department will offer curbside meals for pickup. Meals are still free for all students and pickup will be available at eight of our school sites. You do not need to go to your home school, pick up at your closest location for your family’s convenience. Information on hours and locations is available on our website.
Additional child care openings
In addition to previously registered students, school-age childcare will also be available for the children of emergency responders and frontline health care workers. We were able to redeploy additional staff to make this childcare available from 6:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. at our three sites of Forest View, Wyoming and Lino Lakes elementary schools.
In addition, for emergency responders and frontline health care workers who have older students with disabilities who cannot stay home alone (7th grade through age 21), care will be available from 7:30 a.m. - 2:30 p.m. at the STEP building.
Registration for both of these childcare opportunities is available online.
*Important note about registration: under “location” parents must first choose the “non school day only” option, which is the last one on the list. Parents will then be prompted to choose the specific non-school day site location they prefer to attend.
What will happen in January?
It is our intention to be reopened fully in-person on January 4th and thereafter.
It is our highest priority to keep students learning in-person at school. This week, the rapid increase in covid-like illness among our transportation staff and rapid decrease in available bus drivers created an urgent situation that needed to be immediately addressed. Our transportation system is critical to the safe operation of our schools.
With the additional time provided by this short period of distance learning and the subsequent holiday break, our staff will work on recruiting additional staff, and creating parent drop-off and pick-up plans to safely handle the increased traffic demands that might be necessary going forward.
If you would like to be part of the solution, please help us by using your friend and family connections to find good candidates to drive our buses, or consider becoming a driver yourself. Applications are available on our website.
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