For many weeks at the beginning of the 2020-21 school year, Fargo-Moorhead Metropolitan Statistical Area (FM-MSA) school districts were not providing information about coronavirus/Covid-19 among students, teachers, paraprofessionals, support staff members and administrators to the public. They have since created or updated coronavirus/Covid-19 webpages to make that information available. Please visit the following pages:
- Fargo (N.D.) Public Schools (FPS)
- West Fargo (N.D.) Public Schools (WFPS)
- Moorhead (Minn.) Area Public Schools (MAPS)
IV Words Coronavirus/Covid-19 in Schools Reporting
IV Words believes public has a right and a need to know about confirmed coronavirus/Covid-19 cases in Fargo-Moorhead metropolitan statistical area (FM MSA) schools.
The FM MSA includes Fargo and West Fargo in North Dakota, and Moorhead and Diloworth in Minnesota, which in turn comprises the public school districts of FPS, WFPS, MAPS and the Dilworth-Glyndon-Felton (Minn.) Public Schools (DGF).
Prior to the beginning of the school year, IV Words contacted each of the four public school districts to ask how they would be providing coronavirus/Covid-19 statistics and data to the public. At the time, none of the four districts had plans to release or report the information to the public.
Since the districts were not going to provide the information to the public, at the beginning of the school year IV Words began contacting each of the them on a weekly basis to request figures for confirmed coronavirus cases.
Due to DGF’s relatively small enrollment, there was concern that release of coronavirus case figures could might make it possible to identify specific students and staff members. As a result, DGF did not release district-specific coronavirus case statistics and IV Words did not make additional requests for the information.
The other three school districts have since added student and staff infection information to their coronavirus/Covid-19 webpages.
According to FPS Director of Communications AnnMarie Campbell, “We started the data posts after receiving direction from the state to do so and requests from our community to share what the numbers are in our schools.”
The FPS and WFPS pages do not report the number of cases cumulatively. Despite that, the overall objective of requesting data each week was to ensure the public was kept informed. Since the schools are now providing information online, this will be the final IV Words update.
IV Words has provided weekly updates of coronavirus in FM-MSA schools as a public service. Thank you for reading.
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