Sioux Falls Schools are welcoming students back to the classroom this week. Mayor Paul TenHaken says he has no hesitation about sending his three children back to school.
TenHaken encourages community support for teachers and school administrators as they work to execute their plans for a safe return. He urges patience and flexibility among parents.
“Because there will be an outbreak in your school. Someone will have COVID in your school. A teacher will probably have COVID at some point. And that’s ok!" says TenHaken. "We have a lot of people who get coronavirus, very few who end up in the hospital. So we have to get comfortable with that. We have to know that that’s going to happen.”
TenHaken says everyone has a role to play in keeping kids in schools this fall.
“If we want to keep the students returning to school and we want to keep our schools open, it’s going to require effort of our entire community. So decreasing the virus transmission is up to all of us. The better we do with that, the safer the schools will be and the longer they’ll be able to stay open.”
Local health leaders from both Sanford and Avera continue to recommend wearing face masks…social distancing…and good hand hygiene to slow the spread of the coronavirus.