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Hybrid with no assigned capacity to begin after spring break

e School Board unanimously approved a transition to hybrid with no assigned capacity March 8. About 35 percent of students are in Cohort C and will remain in distance learning, while Cohorts A and B will be in-person.

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Council reconsiders 45-year-old ban on residential protests

A er St. Louis Park o cials learned that an ordinance prohibiting targeted residential protests has been on the books for nearly half a century, council members have been considering amending or revoking it. e council is currently considering whether to keep the policy or update it.

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Park hits one year anniversary for distance learning

March 17 will mark one year since Park began distance learning, a year that has brought unprecedented struggles to students and sta . Since then, Park has gone through several schedule changes, and students and sta have been forced to adjust frequently.

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St. Louis Park Public Schools staff receive vaccinations

March 26

Laniyah Thornton & Talia Lissauer

laniyahthornton@slpecho.com talialissauer@slpecho.com

After receiving an email from the president of the Park Association of Teachers regarding a link with information for the vaccine, superintendent Astein Osei said he reached out to a contact at the county to see if he could help staff with the vaccination process.

“She sent me back some stock response, so I was like, ‘Oh, that’s too bad.’ I was expecting her to give me more details. But literally, a couple hours after that, we got access to the link," Osei said. "Then later that night, she emails me and says, ‘Hey, give me a call.’ So I caught her at like eight o’clock and she said, ‘Hey, I want to know if you’re interested. We got this opportunity to do a vaccination pod with a Hennepin County School District, would you want to do it?'”

Osei quickly agreed. St. Louis Park is now the first school district in Hennepin County to offer the vaccine to all staff. Those who participated received the Moderna vaccine March 5. Osei said they were planning for 400-450 staff members as many had already received the vaccine.

Although she is not attending in-person learning, sophomore Amira Abdirahman said she believes the vaccine is a good precaution for staff.

“I think that it’s good for them. They’re in a position where they have to be around hundreds of students a day,” Abdirahman said.

World history teacher Deb Skadden said she received her first dose of the vaccine late February and is awaiting her second dose. Skadden said she was thrilled to hear all staff would have the option to get the vaccination as it would offer relief for many.

“I’m very pleased about it,” Skadden said. “It’s the biggest worry of teachers coming back to school in COVID(-19), the possibility of getting really sick or being in the hospital or dying.”

As more people get vaccinated, junior Kimberly Parkinson said she feels safer.

“It does make me (feel) safer. It gives me hope that COVID(-19) will end soon, and we can go back to semi-normal,” Parkinson said.

Skadden was skeptical about being in school during COVID-19, but now that teachers are getting vaccinated, she said she is more optimistic about teaching in-person.

“I’m not sure about the students, they’re not going to be vaccinated, but it calms my fears for sure,” Skadden said. “I have a whole different outlook now on school starting back up.”

CDC recommendations for when you are fully vaccinated

Still wear your mask and social distance in public and gatherings with people from multiple households You can unmask and not social distance indoors around other people who are also fully vaccinated You can be indoors with unvaccinated people from only one other household without masks

Infographic Sophie Livingston Source Centers for Disease Control and Prevention