News Photo by Crystal Nelson Tables in Alpena High School’s gymnasium were set up in advance of state testing which is to begin next Tuesday. Students will be spaced three feet apart during the testing.

ALPENA — School districts in Northeast Michigan are preparing to administer state tests to students amid the latest surge of coronavirus.

Some Northeast Michigan school districts plan to move forward with the required testing next week, while other schools will be relying on alternate testing dates for their students, who are currently learning remotely from home.

Alcona Community Schools is among the districts that will have to test students on alternate dates. The school district transitioned to remote learning on Thursday, when a number of students and staff either tested positive or were forced to isolate because of COVID-19.

“We have to rely on the backup date in May so we’ve rescheduled the SAT and PSAT to our May back up date as well as our (ACT) WorkKeys,” Alcona Community Schools Superintendent Dan O’Connor said.

O’Connor said there are multiple week windows for the Michigan Student Test of Educational Progress to be administered and believes students will be back in school in time for that test to be completed.

Local school districts are required to administer the state tests because, earlier this week, the U.S. Department of Education denied Michigan’s request to waive the federal required state summative assessments. Those tests include the Michigan Merit Exam, including SAT, for students in 11th grade.

Michigan Department of Education officials announced on Friday they took the unpredictability of the pandemic into account and scheduled additional test dates and extended test windows for the state summative assessments, including the MME.

State officials have also worked with the College Board to secure alternate dates for high school students to take the SAT with essay exam and the PSAT. The alternate dates for the SAT are April 27 and May 18 while the alternate testing window for the PSAT is April 27 to May 7.

Meanwhile Alpena Public Schools and Posen Consolidated Schools plan to move forward with testing next week.

Alpena High School Principal Tom Berriman said testing will begin for students on Tuesday.

While Posen students in Kindergarten through 12 grades learned remotely this week, Superintendent Michelle Wesner said the district will also begin testing on Tuesday.

“We preplanned and made sure we were ready to go if we were denied, and now that Michigan was denied, we have a plan in place so we’re not scrambling,” she said.

Middle and senior high school students at Hillman Community Schools will transition to online learning starting Monday through April 23.

Atlanta Community Schools students in grades six through 12 will transition to on remote learning on Monday and return to school on April 19.

It was not immediately clear how or when the districts planned to test students. Superintendent Carl Seiter was not immediately available for comment.

Crystal Nelson can be reached at 989-358-5687 or cnelson@thealpenanews.com.