KANSAS

Convention center becomes classrooms amid pandemic

MISSION – In ordinary times, the airy convention center on a 61-acre site in Hesston, Kansas, hosts weddings, corporate retreats and church events. During the pandemic, it has become a schoolhouse for the district’s seventh- and eighth-graders.

Megan Kohlman teaches literature and writing inside one of the rooms, separated from a math teacher’s space by only a plastic sheet. It’s hardly ideal, but for her it’s an upgrade from distance learning in the spring, when she juggled instruction with care of her own young children.

Some schools are getting creative about finding extra square footage to facilitate social distancing and reduce the health risks associated with in-person learning. Districts are setting up makeshift outdoor shelters, bringing in trailers to house classrooms and making use of otherwise empty spaces like museums.

School systems could take cues from the health care system, which has found ways to increase capacity when coronavirus cases surge, said Joseph Allen, a Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health associate professor of exposure science who runs the school’s Healthy Buildings Program. He said the costs of keeping kids out of school are “devastating.”

Kansas Education Commissioner Randy Watson is holding up the Hesston district’s plan as a model to be replicated. He said his visits to dozens of school districts revealed many were struggling regardless of whether they were offering in-person, virtual or hybrid instruction.

In Hesston, seventh- and eighth-graders started the fall semester at the Cross Wind Conference Center, which had been sitting unused amid the pandemic. That created room for the fifth- and sixth-graders to spread out in the middle school, including in the gymnasium and choir room.

UTAH

Governor mandates masks statewide amid virus surge

SALT LAKE CITY – Utah Gov. Gary Herbert declared a state of emergency and ordered a statewide mask mandate on Nov. 8 in an attempt to stem a surge in coronavirus patient hospitalizations that is testing the state’s hospital capacity.

Herbert and the Utah Department of Health issued executive and public health orders requiring residents to wear face coverings in public, at work and when they are within 6 feet of people who don’t live in their households.

Several of the state’s largest counties already required masks, but Herbert, a Republican, had resisted extending the rule to the entire state despite a two-month surge of cases.

Herbert said that the time to debate masks had passed and insisted his orders won’t shut down the economy.

The new Utah rules also call for a two-week pause on extracurricular activities including athletic events, with the exception of high school championship games and Intercollegiate athletic events as long as testing and social distancing guidelines are adhered to. Herbert ordered a limit on “casual social gatherings” to household members only.

By Jan. 1, all Utah students at public and private universities who attend at least one class per week in person must be tested for COVID-19 on a weekly basis.

Herbert’s office said in a statement that the mask-wearing mandate will be extended beyond Nov. 23 “for the foreseeable future.”

Herbert has said he’s concerned that people are feeling fatigued from the pandemic and urged Utah residents to follow masking and social distancing requirements.

NEW MEXICO

Lawmakers may meet in convention center amid pandemic

SANTA FE – New Mexico legislators are grappling with the public health risks of convening their next session in January amid surging statewide rates of coronavirus infections and deaths.

A panel of leading legislators on Nov. 6 unveiled a proposal to move committee meetings to the downtown Santa Fe convention center to provide more spacious rooms for in-person committee hearings.

Democratic House speaker Brian Egolf described a possible hybrid attendance model for the upcoming 60-day session that would close off public access to the Statehouse for floor debates and votes – but allow public attendance and comment at committee meetings in the convention center. A new coronavirus testing regimen for lawmakers and staff also is under consideration.

Under ordinary circumstances, the Capitol’s committee rooms and corridors are tightly packed with lobbyists, pages and vendors of snacks and Native American jewelry, while the central rotunda serves as a staging ground for political demonstrations, business displays and artistic performances.

Under state law, New Mexico’s unsalaried Legislature convenes in mid-January for 60 days in odd-numbered years and 30 days in even years.

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham called together a special session in June to approve temporary voting reforms, budget amendments and economic relief legislation in response to the pandemic.

The Capitol building was open to legislators, staff and journalists but not the general public – with committee meetings and floor session broadcast over glitchy webcasts. Several Republican senators attended without wearing masks.

WYOMING

DA won’t prosecute mask order violators

CHEYENNE – Laramie County District Attorney Leigh Anne Manlove made clear during a Nov. 7 radio interview that her office would not be enforcing the county’s mask mandate, or prosecuting any cases related to it.

KGAB radio host Doug Randall said he brought Manlove onto the “Weekend in Wyoming” radio show primarily to talk about state budget cuts to the DA’s office, but said he also wanted to ask about enforcement of the mask mandate.

“Frankly, I’m not enforcing a mask mandate. I don’t even have sufficient resources to enforce crime, so there may be an official out there who knows what the consequence will be for somebody who doesn’t wear a mask, but it ain’t this one,” Manlove said.

Later in the show, Manlove questioned the constitutionality of enforcing a mask mandate.

Manlove continued by saying that she, as a state employee, had been and would continue to wear a mask in her courthouse office, in courtrooms and other locations when in her official capacity.

Laramie County Health Officer Dr. Stan Hartman said health officials are not currently asking any agency to enforce the order, and they hope enforcement will not be necessary.

The order does include a provision that residents who fail to comply with the mandate could be charged with a misdemeanor, punishable by a $1,000 fine or up to a year behind bars.

NORTH DAKOTA

Politician who died from COVID-19 wins House race

North Dakota residents elected a dead man to the state legislature Nov. 3.

Republican David Andahl, 55, died Oct. 5 after a short battle with coronavirus. Less than a month later, Bismarck voters sent him and running mate Dave Nehring to the state House of Representatives out of District 8.

Early Wednesday morning results had Andahl garnering about 35% of the vote in the district, with only Nehring beating him at about 40%, according to the state election board.

State Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem ruled in October that all votes cast for Andahl should still be counted and that, if he won, a vacancy would be created in his seat. The seat could then be filled either by a legislative member’s party or by voters in a special election.

Andahl, a cattle rancher and race car driver, was hospitalized for four days in early October after testing positive for coronavirus.

“So many things he was very passionate about, and was hoping that he could get into the Legislature and be of some help,” his mother, Pat Andahl, told the Tribune after his death. “He was looking forward to it. He was looking forward to being part of that.”