Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
Return to campus set for May 3
ENDICOTT — St. John-Endicott School District’s top educator is optimistic students will return to campus full-time on May 3 following a two-week hiatus.
Superintendent Suzanne Schmick confirmed Tuesday that campuses in both the cities of St. John and Endicott were shuttered following an April 14 recommendation from Whitman County Health Director Chris Skidmore.
“We were contacted by the health department and notified they were fielding quite a number of calls from families in our St. John-Endicott area,” Schmick said.
Skidmore recommended the school district switch to remote learning in both communities to help curtail the spread, she said.
“He recommended a 14-day pause on our face-to-face learning,” Schmick said.
Under state law, school boards have the final say on shutting down in-person and other educational programs and scholastic sports. The St. John-Endicott School Board previously decided to follow health department recommendations for in-person learning decisions related to COVID-19.
Other than a brief “hybrid” educational plan at the beginning of the 2020-21 school year, the shutdown of the campuses in St. John and Endicott was the first since last March, when Gov. Jay Inslee began issuing coronavirus-related lockdown orders.
The “pause” in St. John and Endicott schools follows two weeks of new case reports.
From April 4-17, the county health department reported 83 new cases in Pullman, 17 in Colfax, and 14 in St. John. Endicott had eight cases, as did LaCrosse. Rosalia had six, records show. No other town in the county has more than three cases, and many had zero.
Whitman County is among only three in the state that returned to Gov. Inslee’s Phase 2 or reopening in the wake of the virus. The other counties are Pierce and Cowlitz, both in Western Washington.
The phase designation will be revisited during a coronavirus data evaluation on May 3.
Because St. John and Endicott schools operate as a single district, campuses in both towns were shuttered by school officials.
“What happens in one building happens in the other,” Schmick said.
LaCrosse participates with St. John-Endicott in sports and had the same number of cases as Endicott.
But Superintendent Doug Curtis said LaCrosse schools remain open for on-campus education.
He confirmed a “couple people got tested” for coronavirus in the school community, but that the number didn’t rise to the level requiring a shutdown.
“We just follow the guidance of the Whitman County Health District,” he said, crediting the school nurse for keeping staff, students, and their families informed.
While the LaCrosse school campus remains open, its interscholastic sports program has been stopped because its students participate in joint athletics programs with St. John-Endicott.
The cooperative St. John-Endicott-LaCrosse Eagles baseball team has scrubbed its season due to the outbreak.
Curtis said he’s hopeful some track team members can compete.
Roger Harnack is the co-owner/publisher of Free Press Publishing. Having grown up Benton City, Roger is an award-winning journalist, photographer, editor and publisher. He's one of only two editorial/commentary writers to ever receive the international Golden Quill. Roger is dedicated to the preservation of local media, and the voice it retains for Eastern Washington.
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