URBANDALE, Iowa — On Friday, students and teachers at Rolling Green Elementary school in Urbandale continued to operate with a fully online learning model, despite the Iowa Department of Education failing to grant them an application to waive the requirement for at least 50% in-person learning.
In a special school board meeting earlier this week, district leaders expressed their concern to parents and teachers regarding the state's denial of their two-week request to continue in the mode they began the year with: completely online learning.
After a long discussion, the board ultimately decided to continue with 100% virtual instruction for its Rolling Green students.
State officials said this week the school was granted the two-week waiver on July 21, two days before the first day of school, because new guidelines for schools were released on July 17, just days before Rolling Green's first day of school.
The two-week waiver was good through Aug. 6.
Urbandale School Community District leaders applied for another temporary waiver for continuous online learning, but the request was denied.
A district can apply for a temporary two-week waiver only if there is 10% absenteeism among students and if the positivity rate for the county is 15-20% on average for the past 14 days.
Otherwise, the district must have at least half of the students' instruction in-person.
Rolling Green Elementary is in Polk County, which, according to state data, has an average positivity rate of 8% for the past 14 days.
An Urbandale Community School Ditsrict spokesperson issued the following statement to Local 5:
"Based upon the School Board’s decision on August 3, Rolling Green will continue operating within the Required Continuous Learning (online) instructional model. Representatives from the District are meeting with the [Iowa Department of Education] today."
Download the We Are Iowa app or subscribe to Local 5's "5 Things to Know" email newsletter.
WATCH: 5 tips to help your child properly wear a face mask