PEORIA, Ill. — Over 9,500 Peoria Public Schools students returned last week to in-person learning, and a good number of them were given COVID-19 tests during their first week back.
The numbers were shared Monday night during the District 150 Board of Education meeting by Superintendent Dr. Sharon Desmoulin-Kherat.
Of the 777 tests administered during the week ending Jan. 22, 26 rendered positive results. 16 of those positive tests were of staff members, while the other 10 were students.
95% of the tests given were to students.
“That’s gone very, very well. Exceeded my expectations, for sure,” said Kherat.
“I will continue to say our implementation plan is solid, and when we talk about change management and being inclusive and collaborative, that was a perfect example of that, with over 100 people involved with that, and they did a beautiful job creating a solid plan for Peoria Public Schools.
“I visited all of the schools on Tuesday and Wednesday and was just thoroughly pleased with social distancing, students wearing their masks, PPP [personal protective equipment] — classrooms being equipped with whatever they needed, and it was good to see. Sometimes theory and practice don’t necessarily align, but those really did.”
Kherat anticipated 1,000 staff and students would be tested during the week ending Jan. 29.
PPS in October announced a partnership with Pekin-based Reditus Labs for rapid testing, thanks to donations from Reditus and the Gilmore Foundation.
The district said it will be keeping a weekly update on active cases and number of tests conducted on its Spring 2021 Reopening page, under “PPS Covid Metrics.”
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