The Beatrice Public School District has reported it’s first Covid case. Superintendent Jason Alexander says the case was confirmed over the weekend…

"We were informed late Friday evening, it was around 6 o'clock, that there had been a positive case that had been in both buildings.....the buildings were Lincoln Elementary and Stoddard Elementary. And so we began the process of notifying and exchanging information with Public Health Solutions and doing some contact tracing. We worked our way thru that over the weekend and determined that with the necessary precautions in place we could return to school on the basis of their recommendation that the individual be quarantined and now we move forward".

Alexander says the school district has procedures that involve school officials notifying Public Health Solutions and gathering information involving exposure risk and contact information…

"There is a system of procedures and protocols in place that we have worked very closely with Public Health Solutions on and that involves when a case is reported to us or to Public Health Solutions thru the testing protocols that take place, we will notify each other and from that point forward we will initiate a contact tracing team for that building and begin to trace back that individuals steps."

Speaking on KWBE's Focus On Education Program Tuesday morning, Alexander says it should be expected that more cases will be reported in the future…..

"It's just a matter of time. We have been saying from the beginning that it's not a matter of if we see cases but a matter of when. And that is the case. We are now beginning to see cases pop up. As we move along we will have the opportunity to deal with plenty of them and that is what we will do is handle them to the best of our ability".

Alexander says the start of the new school year has gone well for teachers and students. He says the majority of the student body is wearing masks to school…

"We had 200...exactly 200 people who had opted out of wearing masks and we had one call back yesterday and say "tear up my opt out form as I am going to wear them", so we are at 199."

Last Friday was the deadline for students to opt out of wearing masks.