The Wrangell School District held another SMART Start meeting last Wednesday, June 24, to continue discussing ways the district can safely reopen and operate during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Department of Education has come out with recommendations to determine what constitutes different risk levels for operation in Wrangell, according to the meeting's notes, so the group of school board members, district faculty and staff, and parents mostly concentrated their discussion around the possible realities of school life in a pandemic.
SMART Start is a framework for Alaska school districts to base their reopening plans off of. The framework allows for schools to consider what operations could look like during the pandemic, at low, medium, and high risk levels. The Department of Education's recommendations are to consider "low risk" operations to be as close as possible to life before COVID-19, while keeping with all current health mandates. "Medium risk" needs to be determined by the district's local committee, according to the meeting notes. A "high risk" situation would lead to the school district going back to distance learning for their students, and shutting the school buildings.
For operations within the school buildings, there was discussion about how social distancing could work. Several participants in this meeting met at the Evergreen Elementary gym, while social distancing. With their seats six feet apart, according to the meeting notes, there was room for 24 desks in the gym. Classrooms are much smaller than the gym, so it was pointed out in the meeting that social distancing while at full capacity would be a challenge.
Community member Penny Allen said that ventilation, along with social distancing, is an important part of avoiding COVID-19. She suggested that the schools not allow face-to-face seating, and also seating particularly vulnerable students near windows or air vents while in class. Maintenance Director Josh Blatchley also pointed out that the schools' ventilation systems have the option to either pull fresh air in from outside, or to recirculate air already in the building. Students wearing masks while in school was also considered during the meeting.
How many students to let into a classroom on a given day was also discussed. Teacher Laura Davies said that it would be a struggle for teachers to divide their time between in-person classrooms and socially distanced students at the same time. Community Member Clarissa Young said she felt that having a staggered schedule this next school year, such as half-days for students, would put an undue burden on custodial staff. Instead of students sharing half-days, he proposed that an "A-B" schedule might be more efficient.
Kristy Woodbury, community member, said that the Ketchikan School District was planning to operate at 50 percent capacity during their "low risk" operations. She wanted to know if the Wrangell School District had considered their capacity limits to maintain social distancing. According to the meeting notes, Superintendent Debbe Lancaster said that question would have to be determined by school administration.
On the topic of distance learning online, Lancaster said that the district needed to consider what would happen if a staff member became ill. If staff became too reduced due to sickness, teachers may have to cover content areas they are unfamiliar with for other classes. Whatever plan they drafted, it would have to have protections for both students and staff, she said.
Donna Massin, with the school district, expressed concern that the temperature the district would consider a "fever" might be too high at 100.4 degrees. Earlier this year, according to the meeting notes, she caught the flu but only had a fever of 99 degrees. If the district holds a higher threshold, they may miss students. According to the meeting notes, Lancaster said that the district is planning to track staff and student temperatures just for this outcome, as some people run higher temperatures and others run lower temperatures. Teacher Mikki Angerman said that back in pre-COVID operations, the school would call parents to pick up their child if they had a temperature of 99 degrees anyway, so nothing should change in that regard.
Transportation was another consideration discussed in this meeting. Student transportation is going to depend on both enrollment numbers next semester, and the number of students that live two or more miles away from school. When the district negotiated the transportation contract, she said, they were anticipating offering the same level of services as they had in the past. At a minimum, she said they will offer transportation services at state-required levels. It will depend on students' needs this next school year, she said.
Penny Allen suggested that the district ask parents to drive their kids to school instead of take the bus, when possible. Teacher Ryan Howe agreed with this idea, and suggested that the district offer some kind of reimbursement plan for parents.
Other suggestions discussed in this meeting included sending out a poll to see how many parents are considering homeschooling this year, whether or not families were more interested in distance learning, in-school learning, or a mix of both, and options for parents who needed to work during the school day and could not keep their kids at home alone, among other items.
Lancaster said that school administrators will return from their breaks in the near future, according to the meeting notes, and they will work together to draft a full plan for reopening. This draft will be presented in a town hall meeting in mid-July, she said, before it will be finalized and submitted to the state. Afterwards, the school board will get to consider adoption of the SMART Start plan in their August meeting.
Lancaster asked that people with comments or suggestions email smartstart@wpsd.us.
Reader Comments(0)