Des Moines schools day care program closes due to virus

Des Moines Public Schools is among the thousands of school districts scrambling to determine how to both teach students and protect them this coming school year from a new surge of coronavirus cases across the country.

A district summer day care program was abruptly shut down this week following several positive COVID-19 tests within the program. District officials announced Tuesday that the MetroKids program at Hubbell Elementary School is closed until at least Aug. 9, and the school will undergo extra cleaning during the closure, KCCI reported.

Tuesday night, the Des Moines school board approved a virtual learning option for its elementary students, with officials citing the surge in cases.

“We weren’t planning on that as we were looking ahead to this school year, but in light of recent developments around COVID-19, the increases that we’re seeing … this just looks like an online option for younger students,” Phil Roeder, director of communications for the district, told WOI-TV.

The new option means the district will go into the new school year with an online class option for all grades, since it already offered virtual learning for students in sixth through 12th grades.

Roeder said district teachers will not be instructing students under the new online program. Instead, it will be conducted through instructors with a company called Edgenuity, who will grade student work and provide feedback.

“Students won’t be logging into a class with other students," Roeder said. “They will be doing the work at their own pace.”