Kathi Arnold News Today

Ames, Gilbert and Roland-Story schools split Monday in light of a lack of legal clarity on federal workplace rules to combat COVID-19.

A reckless policy: Local legislators react Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, a Republican, touted the legislation as a means of putting parents in control and protecting Iowans rights to make their own health care decisions.  Sen. Herman Quirmbach, D-Ames, said the law is "a reckless policy driven by an extreme right-wing ideology that denies science." "What happens the next time a coronavirus-type pandemic comes along? (Schools and local governments) cant always wait for the state Legislature to enact...

The district did not yet know whether it would offer more clinics if some younger children are federally approved soon for COVID-19 vaccination.

She expected the Collins-Maxwell Community School District would be done providing second doses March 2. As of that day, White said 96 people at Nevada Community School District and 100 people at Ames Community School District still needed their first doses.  She added that "we have (second) doses scheduled for all the other schools to complete their series. We anticipate to be completed with everyone by the end of March." Kathi Arnold, Ames CSDs emergency management coordinator, said Thurs...

Ames Tribune The Ames School Board voted 4-3 Monday against returning high school and middle school students to fully in-person learning for the second semester amid the COVID-19 pandemic.  Ames superintendent Jenny Risner recommended the Ames School Board vote to move to 100% in-person learning at the middle school and high school, but ultimately the board decided to remain in a hybrid model at the 5 p.m. board meeting.  The students have been in a hybrid model, meeting five days every t...

The chaos and the quiet: Navigating 2020 as a school nurse Ames Tribune Allison Moses was running a COVID-19 unit at the beginning of the year at MercyOne Medical Center in Des Moines. When the first COVID patient arrived at the hospital, Moses, a Huxley resident, volunteered to have her unit become the primary COVID unit at the hospital. "We had a patient suspected a couple weeks earlier in March and it went really, really well and smooth, so we decided to put them on our (cardiopulmonary) u...