As the start to the 2020-21 school year approaches with new policies and procedures in place, parents and educators are still wondering how it will all unfold? Despite the district following guidance from the Iowa Department of Public Health and the Iowa Department of Education, some parents still have concerns. One of those parents is Sarah Bennett Truitt, who created an online petition (https://bit.ly/34ex8Ng) requesting administrators and the school board to delay the start of the school year by at least two weeks.
Truitt said she has a number of concerns about Clarke Community School District’s preparedness for an Aug. 24 start date.
“I am absolutely nervous about it,” said Truitt. “I think the thing I am most nervous about is the unknown. What is the protocol if one of [my children’s] best friends ends up positive? Does that mean my children will then miss two weeks of school? How does that interfere with their learning ... ? I know the year will be difficult for everyone across the country, but yes, I am mostly nervous about just being able to make a plan about something.”
Truitt said, despite open and regular communication from the district through its social media and the school/district website, little has been made known to parents and teachers about protocols for what should take place if, or when, a student or teacher tests positive for COVID-19. She questions how the exposure will be traced throughout the schools, if at all, and what kind of position this puts substitute teachers in.
Truitt believes the district is doing their best by taking every precaution, and said that the elementary school administrators are doing a “working very, very hard to help teachers” as they prepare to school. However, she questions how easily new policies and procedures will be to enforce.
“From what I understand, appropriate social-distancing will be enforced. I know that our district was not required to mandate masks by the state, but they did choose to do that. So, the students are required to wear masks, which may be difficult to enforce, especially on the little ones,” she said.
Additionally, Truitt said concerns have been raised among fellow parents and staff about construction projects that remain unfinished as of Tuesday.
“With the construction projects not being finished, it will be more difficult to enforce social-distancing,” said Truitt. “Teachers haven’t been able to be in their rooms to figure out where children are going to work or to set up their cameras ... to record their lessons, which will then be uploaded to the virtual learners ... they have had very little time to work with them.”
Truitt also said she has received word from fellow parents that believed they would be receiving Chromebooks with WiFi capabilities, but that has yet to happen.
“And we are less than a week out from the first day of school,” she said. “I think panic is starting to set in. I have heard from many teachers that they were not ready, that the buildings are not ready, flooring is not done, that the bathrooms are not finished, there’s flooding from the sprinkler, the road isn’t paved, things like that that teachers are really concerned about. All of that on top of the pandemic creates a really stressful last few days before go time.”
Administrators’ challenge
Steve Seid, Clarke Community School District superintendent, said it has been very challenging to come to the decisions the board has come to as it worked on, and submitted, the district’s “Return to Learn” plan to the Department of Education by the July 1 deadline, only to have the Gov. Kim Reynolds change requirements July 17, in which she ordered Iowa school districts to conduct at least half of their instruction in-person. In her proclamation July 17, Reynolds said schools may offer online programs as a voluntary option for parents to select for their children, but districts must receive state approval if they want to move an entire building or district to online-only lessons.
Considering the guidance from the Department of Education and Iowa Department of Public Health, the Clarke Community School officials decided to require masks, which Seid said are required whenever a student is around other students.
“If we didn’t do that and someone tests positive, we would be asking ourselves, ‘What more could we have done?’” Seid said.
Seid, who is charge of ordering personal protection equipment for the district has spent more than $9,000 on PPEs such as sanitizer, face masks and shields, gloves and wipes.
When asked if he was aware of Truitt’s online petition, Seid said he is, but that he does not believe the school board will be discussing it this week during it’s special board meeting Friday, as Truitt had hoped. Seid said the board will be finalizing contracts, such as one with US Cellular, so that the district can offer its virtual students internet, at the district’s expense.
While there has been some delay in the construction due to manufacturer and supply delays because of COVID-19, Seid said district officials knew the ambitious project would be pushing it close to the start of the new school year. After speaking with the construction company Tuesday, Seid said that teachers would be able to fully get into their classrooms Thursday and, in addition to district custodial staff, a cleaning company will be on site at the end of the week in preparation of the return of students Monday.
“It is expected that it will all be in place,” he said.
COVID-19 closures
While it is possible, Seid said meeting all of the requirements to close Clarke’s campuses and move learning to an entirely online format is highly unlikely, but he is prepared to do so, if necessary.
For Clarke Community Schools to close, or apply to offer its instruction entirely online, Clarke County as a whole would have to have a positivity rate of 15 to 20%, which it is currently at, but that the schools would also need to have a student absentee rate of 10%, and students are not back at school until Monday. The combination of a 15 to 20% county-wide positivity rate paired with 10% student absenteeism would have to take place for 14 days due to COVID-19 related illness, quarantine or isolation.
“Once you meet that threshold, if you do the math ... that’s mathematically near impossible,” said Seid. “Let’s just say ... that all those things fall into place, then you are able to fill out the waiver and send that in ... for guidance on what your next steps are.”
After the Department of Education is notified, it has 48 hours to notify the district of those next steps.
The Iowa Department of Education’s guidance states that the 15-20% positivity rate is a threshold for when a school could close, not necessarily that it should. This gives the Department of Education the power to handle each district on a case-by-case basis.
“Districts should work with state and local public health to determine the best course given situations locally,” the Iowa Department of Education guidelines state.
Seid and the school board doesn’t necessarily have the authority to make all the rules, as they are following the guidance of the department of education and public health officials and mandates by the governor. But as a cases are brought to the schools’ attention, Seid said that could mean one particular classroom could be quarantined or more action beyond that. There are still many unknowns at this time.
“In all this planning, the safety of our kids, our students and our staff has been the absolute priority and we’ve been doing construction when COVID hit,” Seid said. “That’s two pretty significant things happening at the same time and we are just very eager for our students to get back but again, we have done everything we feel in our opportunity to provide the most safe environment that we can.”
Updates can be found online at https://www.clarke.k12.ia.us or by following Clarke Community Schools on Facebook.