WCSD No. 1 board discusses school reopening

WORLAND – The Washakie County School District No. 1 Board of Trustees met on Wednesday, July 15, to discuss school reopening, hear a presentation from a student and approve bids for services for the 2020-21 school year.

According to Superintendent David Nicholas, the initial plan that was discussed at last month’s board meeting that involved a four-phase plan for school being fully open, open with restrictions, partially open or closed with online learning has been scrapped and changed into a three-phase plan.

The plans discussed were strictly discussion at the meeting, no official plan was approved by the board, but a final plan is expected to be presented and approved at their Washakie County Fair board meeting on July 30 at noon.

Nicholas told the board that he and the district must complete a checklist in order to get the plan approved by the Wyoming Department of Education (WDE), Washakie County Public Health (WCPH) and the Wyoming Department of Health (WDH).

“We anticipate on Aug. 18 that every child comes back,” Nicholas said. “But, we are limiting activities to allow for continued social distancing; students and staff return with social distancing and mask rules in place.”

Nicholas went on to discuss what would constitute a time where masks are required which would involve students and staff wearing their mask when social distancing is not able to be recognized. Nicholas understands that there are students who may struggle to put a mask on or would struggle with the idea of wearing a mask every day, and he said the alternative would be enrolling in an online school if parents did not believe it was safe to send their kids back.

“If your kid has never wore a mask, maybe practice, have them wear a mask while they are watching a TV show and see if they can do it,” Nicholas said.

Nicholas went on to discuss how there are a high multitude of variables to work through from kindergarteners wearing masks, how food is going to be served and how they need to consider a large number of scenarios to ensure everything is covered in their plan.

“Wyoming teachers and students are wonderful, you can’t hardly order them to do anything, but you can ask them to do anything,” Nicholas said.

Nicholas understands that they need to hammer out the smaller details such as how often you take temperatures, how will lunch be served, and even how do students pass in between periods in the high school.

Nicholas said that the district would provide two washable masks to each student, and would be able to wash them as needed since each school has a washing machine and dryer. Parents are allowed to provide masks for their kids as some may want.

Nicholas told the board that representatives from Banner Health, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Jay Stallings and Anna Venable, came in recently to help inform the district that there is a test that can receive results within 30 minutes.

“My expectation is that we are bringing 1,200 kids back on Aug. 18, and we have to encourage our families to work with us for social distancing, and masks are going to be a part of this,” Nicholas said.

Nicholas said to the board that coming back on Aug. 18 will not be the problem for the district, but how the district responds to the first positive COVID-19 case, whenever it should occur.

Board members discussed with Nicholas protocols about activities and sharing of supplies, stricter deadlines and instruction for students who are required to do online curriculum when they have absences, bringing back the requirements of students completing work within a quarter, determining the legitimacy of absences and not holding certain types of absences against students if they do miss school because of mandated quarantine.

Additional staffing was discussed and may be used to hire more para educators or cleaning crews, and Nicholas said that money through the Coronavirus Aid Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act would be used to hire that staffing.

District Curriculum Director Jody Rakness discussed with the board how they are working on providing one Chromebook for each student through technology grants, one portal for the district so there is only one online portal for families to learn. She said the district is looking into how to fix the problem of some students not having access to internet at home for potential distance learning.

Rakness also discussed how important it is for the district to follow up with students that are distance learning at home to ensure that they are able to access the online materials properly.

OTHER BUSINESS

Middle schooler Liette Brown came before the board to present her experience with scoliosis, and how it could be harmful to students if they are not screened more often. Brown wanted the board to consider taking more action to screen students for signs of scoliosis as it is important to catch any signs of the disease at an early age.

Brown suggested more testing in school along with another option of sending home a pamphlet to parents to help them test for scoliosis at home.

No action or further discussion happened after the presentation.

Ashley Weaver, Jan Allen and Erica Clark were approved for summer school start up on August 3-7 due to staffing changes. Jeana Croft was approved to be the high school family and consumer science teacher.

The board approved the resignation of music teacher and golf coach Chad Rose, who has taken a position in Sheridan.

Taylor Sweeney was approved for high school assistant volleyball coach, Zach Lempka was approved for seventh-grade assistant football coach and Ben Hofmann was approved for high school golf head coach, with board members Susan Scheuerman and Terri Logan voting no on his approval.

Franz Bakery was approved for the district’s bread, Sysco was approved for milk and Murdoch Oil was approved for the gasoline and diesel bid.

Y & S Technologies was awarded the computer bid at $50,887.50.

The board entered in to executive session for personnel.