Hill County lists another death, CJI school delays opening

COVID-19 has caused another death in the area and already is impacting schools.

Hill County Health Department reported another COVID-19-related death Tuesday, bringing the county total to 47.

And while most local schools are open today, a major exception is in Chester. Chester-Joplin-Inverness schools, which were scheduled to open today, posted on their Facebook page Tuesday that the first day of school has been postponed until Tuesday, Aug. 31, due to COVID-19.

Havre Daily News was not able to obtain more information, such as whether it was quarantining of faculty and staff or some other issue that led to the delay, whether most faculty and staff are quarantined and whether the schools would use distanced learning before Aug. 31, by printing deadline this morning.

Havre Daily attempted to contact all local districts this morning but was not able to reach most superintendents by printing deadline this morning.

North Star Schools and Rocky Boy Schools opened Aug. 18, Hays-Lodge Pole Schools were scheduled to open Aug. 19, Turner Schools were scheduled to open Monday, and Box Elder Schools opened Tuesday — with a slight change of plans on the length of the day — and other local schools opened today.

Havre Superintendent Craig Mueller did not indicate any problems were occurring in Havre schools, and said he would not have information on numbers of people involved in the district with confirmed COVID-19 cases until later today.

Box Elder Schools closed early Tuesday, dismissing classes at 1 p.m. to allow for planning in case the district to deal with teaching and learning when people are placed in quarantine.

“Box Elder Schools did end up dealing with some COVID-19-related situations earlier than we had anticipated,” Superintendent Jeremy MacDonald said. “We will continue to work with the Rocky Boy Health Center and Hill County Health Department when addressing reports of COVID impacting our school.

“We are fully operational today and hope to continue that way moving forward,” he added. “Staff was allowed some extended time on Tuesday to prepare for students who may be quarantined as well as plan in case a staff member is quarantined or has to care for a family member under quarantine. We have limited time in a day for meetings when students are present.

“We felt reviewing our procedures was a priority given current circumstances and will provide long term benefits for a quality educational experience as we continue to navigate education while under a pandemic,” MacDonald said.  

New COVID-19 cases continue top be confirmed in the area. Blaine and Hill counties each reported two new cases Tuesday with 78 active cases in Hill County and 37 in Blaine County.

The state tracking map this morning reported two new cases in Liberty County with 13 active cases and two new cases in Chouteau County with four active.