Public invited to town hall on school district reopening

The Wrangell Public School District will be hosting an online town hall meeting to discuss the reopening plan for fall 2020, tonight at 6 p.m.. Superintendent Debbe Lancaster said that a meeting was tentatively set for July 16 during a policy committee meeting on July 9. The date was confirmed in an email from Kim Powell, with the school district, on July 13.

The school district hosted a series of meetings between school staff, administration, and community members on the SMART Start reopening. SMART Start is a state-issued framework for school districts to build their reopening plans off of. In these meetings, meeting participants discussed what other school districts were planning, how transportation might look for students during this COVID-19 pandemic, how feasible hosting in-person and online classes simultaneously would be, and what the district would constitute a "low risk" or "high risk" scenario, among a variety of other topics. Lancaster said, in the July 9 policy meeting, that a district task force was organized to look at input from the SMART Start meetings and to put together a draft reopening plan. This town hall meeting will be an opportunity to answer questions and receive further input from the public.

"Wrangell Public Schools' plan has not yet been finalized," the school district wrote on their Facebook page, on July 13. "The District is currently working with the Borough EOC to formulate a draft document. We want to make sure that the community has a chance to give input and voice their concerns during the Town Hall meeting on Thursday evening. We will follow that meeting with a School Board Work Session on Monday, July 20 to give School Board Members a chance to review the plan and provide input. Once the plan is finalized, it will be shared with the community."

Public attendance and participation is encouraged, according to Powell. Questions should be emailed to kpowell@wpsd.us prior to 3:30 p.m. today, she wrote in her email.

The town hall can be joined on Zoom. The meeting ID is 968 1647 6970, the password is 9dz2rd. The link to the Zoom meeting can be found on the district's Facebook page, "Wrangell Public Schools."