MARSHALL — Marshall Public Schools will have a new resource available to help monitor COVID-19 in the district.

This week, Superintendent Jeremy Williams said MPS is starting to receive rapid testing kits that the district ordered through the state.

“We were able to work with (the Minnesota Department of Education) to get some rapid tests so that will be an option for people that are interested,” Williams said in a report to the Marshall School Board on Monday.

MDE data said MPS has also received more than $135,000 in grant funding to help with COVID response. Williams said the grant funds will help MPS with costs for school nursing staff and personal protective equipment.

MPS isn’t the only area school district to receive grant funds or testing kits. MDE data said the Canby, Lakeview, Minneota and Yellow Medicine East school districts were each awarded $40,000 in grant funding for COVID response. Canby, Minneota, YME and the Redwood Area school districts also ordered COVID-19 tests through the state.

Williams said school nurses at MPS “have a lot on their plates” with COVID response and contact tracing. In working with school nurses, the district tried to find some ways to help with the testing process, like having rapid tests available on request.

“Families that would like a rapid test, they take it home and the student actually just swabs their nose themselves and runs the test,” Williams said. “You get results in 15 minutes. So that should help for an asymptomatic person who is a close contact.”

“We’re certainly coming to terms with the fact that COVID isn’t going away,” Williams told the school board. “So we need to continue to think about how we best meet the needs of all the kids, with that as an ongoing reality.”

This week, the Minnesota Department of Education announced that 86% of school districts in the state had applied for COVID-19 school testing program grants. School districts requested a total of almost $50 million for staffing or purchasing supplies like COVID testing kits or personal protective equipment, the MDE said. Schools also had access to supplies like rapid COVID tests and PCR tests

While the school year has looked more normal for area schools this fall, COVID-19 has continued to affect area districts.

As of Wednesday, Marshall Public Schools’ online COVID dashboard said the district had a total of nine students and two staff members who had tested positive for COVID-19. Another 10 students and two staff were waiting for test results, the dashboard said.

On Wednesday, the Lakeview school district’s COVID-19 dashboard said 10 students and two staff were positive. Minneota Public Schools had one student and one staff member test positive as of Tuesday. Lynd School had six students and four staff members test positive as of Wednesday. Tracy Area Public Schools had a total of 16 active positive cases among staff and students as of Wednesday. RTR Schools had a total of six positive cases among students and staff as of Wednesday, with another 35 people in quarantine.