Gibraltar Superintendent Tina Van Meer is learning a lot as her school district waits to safely reopen. The district has been remotely learning since the school year started on September 8th. It has not been immune to some of the challenges other districts have faced like quarantining teachers that have had close contact with positive cases. The building has also been outfitted with touchless faucets and bottle stations, sanitizing areas, and will be finishing up work on an air filtration system in early October. Van Meer says its backpack program to get school materials to those who do not have strong Internet connections shows the lessons they have learned.

The earliest school could return in session is Thursday, but only if the number of new cases over a two week time period in the county is at 28 or below. Last week it was 70. Van Meer says the school board and the community will see the money spent on its COVID-19 mitigation strategies at its annual meeting next week.