In-person instruction to resume at Carson City's Mark Twain Elementary

Mark Twain Elementary School will resume in-person instruction with teachers and students beginning next week, according to a news release from the Carson City School District.

Teachers and employees are expected to return Monday to conduct remote lessons, and students in specific grade levels and assigned cohorts are expected to return beginning Tuesday for in-person learning.

“Our organizational mission is to ‘make the most of every day for every student by empowering them with the skills, knowledge, values and opportunities to thrive,’ and that has been a challenge throughout the majority of this year,” said Richard Stokes, superintendent. “Unless there are any additional positive cases where key school personnel must isolate and may be unable to fulfill their duties as assigned, we will continue to monitor the health and safety of our students and employees and continue to cautiously strive to meet our educational objectives.”

The school adopted full-remote learning Oct. 29 due to COVID-19 concerns. While students and staff functioned via remote learning, the school underwent thorough cleaning and sanitizing.

The district said it will continue to work closely with Carson City Health and Human Services on contact tracing. The district monitors the health of students and staff and shares public health information provided by CCHHS on the district’s COVID Information Page.

The school district works with CCHHS to notify employees and families when individuals have been identified as having been in close contact with a confirmed case in a school. The school district provides contact information, seating charts, class schedules, bus routes and any other data required to assist CCHHS in contact tracing. During its investigation process, the health department begins contact tracing to determine exposure and then makes all determinations on which students and staff should be excluded from a building.

Contact tracing is conducted by contracted firm Deloitte. Members of the public are urged to respond to telephone calls from Deloitte. As a reminder, the county health department also requires all members of a household to quarantine if there is a confirmed positive COVID-19 case in their home.