Concerns regarding COVID-I9 are now hitting the South Tama County community as well as across the state. Individual Speech State set to take place on Saturday, March 14 has been cancelled. The STC speech team was scheduled to compete at Grinnell High School.

A memo from the Iowa High School Speech Association was released Thursday morning saying:

The Executive Committee voted this morning to cancel all state speech contests set for Saturday, March 14. The All-State Festival on March 30 at UNI is also being cancelled.

These changes were made for the health and safety of our students, coaches, judges and the host schools. The IHSAA agrees that safety is the number one priority. The Executive Committee surrounding the COVID-19 virus warranted cancellation of the state contests. The Executive Committee discussed and reviewed comments and concerns that were sent in by our member schools in the past few days.

We encourage local schools to hire judges to review and rate their students. Any student who is selected as an All-State speaker will receive a medal and recognition. Schools should contact the IHSSA to report All-State honorees. We ask local contests be completed before the end of the school year.