We continue our long slog through the 01/11/2021 Board of Education Meeting. You can view it in its entirety here.
As already covered…
(a) Ed Ruffolo declined to fill the board vacancy.
(b) The Board considered and voted on the resolutions up for a vote at the Wisconsin School Board Association Meeting later this month.
(c) They listened to the Superintendent’s Report which covered some of the administration’s reasoning in moving to in-person/hybrid instruction.
After the Superintendent’s Report, they moved on to the Staffing Update and then the Safe and Resilient Return report (which particularly may interest parents since it talks a bit about some of the procedures that will be in place when students return to school on Tuesday 01/19).
Per Julie King, back at the end of November, they were at a 97% fill rate for their educators and paraprofessionals. That is currently up to 99%. They received 97 requests for second semester leave and ADA accommodations. They have met all those requests except for 6 which she was finishing up that week.
At the beginning of the year, their substitute pool was 52% of where it was the previous year. Currently, that is up to 61%. In addition to that, they’re strategically assigning substitutes to sites to reduce deployment time and allow for additional coverage. They’re also implementing a learning hub model for the schools that have the staff and facilities to do so.
She then reviewed the number of staff affected by Covid since the beginning of the school year. All staff are required to report symptoms and positive tests, etc, so this includes data from all 1,925 staff members.
Positive cases to date: 219
Quarantined due to close contact: 542
Self Symptoms: 345
Loss of childcare/school closure: 47
Total impacted by Covid related incidents: 1,153
Of the 219 positive cases among staff, only 11, about 5%, were attributed to in-district spread. Of the 542 quarantine cases, 183, about 34%, were due to a close contact at a district site.
She pointed out that there has been a decline to the average number of positive cases. From November 15-January 5 AASD had an average of 8.7 positive cases as compared to the previous weeks when they were averaging 15.75. Because every staff member had to report symptoms and positive results, these numbers included individuals who were working remotely as well as people who were working in buildings.
Polly Vanden Boogaart then reviewed the student data. This data only covered students who were receiving in person services. Since September 20 when they started tracking student data, 47 students have tested positive and 490 have had to quarantine due to close contact.
The number of Covid-positive students has remained level. Only 4 student cases have been attributable to in-district spread, which was less than 1% of their cases. [Polly claimed that that was less than 1% of their cases. I’m not sure where she got that figure. 4 out of 47 students is 8.5% and even adding the 219 Covid positive staff cases into the count still results in 1.5%.]
Things were then opened up for questions.
Kris Sauter wanted to confirm whether the PCR tests the district would be providing would be available to students as well as staff.
Polly responded that right now they’re just looking mainly at providing them to staff. [Although, it had sounded earlier during the Superintendent’s Report like they would be available to students also.]
Kris wanted to confirm they would not be available to students.
Per Polly, not at this time. They are working on figuring out how they could provide it to students, but right now they’ll be just providing it to staff if they have availability.
Julie King pointed out that the availability of testing and of free testing in Appleton is something that is different than when school started in August.
Barry O’Connor wanted to know if the PCR test is the deep one that goes back into your nose.
Polly explained that there are different levels. PCR tests are nasal swab tests, but different PCR tests go back different distances. The one AASD would provide will be a gentle nasal swab, not a deep nasal swab.
Barry wanted to know if the antigen test was less invasive. And could it be done at the schools for the students. [As an aside, I was honestly surprised to see Barry demonstrate such little knowledge about PCR and antigen tests. He specifically made a point in an earlier meeting about parents sending in studies to support going back to in-person instruction that, if you read through them closely, did not actually support their position. He presented himself as someone who was reading the research thoroughly and yet now he seemed to not even have a basic understanding of how the different Covid tests work. It seemed odd to me.]
Polly answered that both types of tests could be performed at schools by school nurses. The PCR test can even be done by the person getting tested under the supervision of the individuals running the mobile testing lab.
Barry wanted to know how quickly the test results would be available.
Per Polly, they hoped to get the PCR test results back within 48 hours. The antigen test results would be available within 15 minutes.
Judy Baseman said that the antigen test would be the one potentially for symptomatic students.
Kris wondered if that would require parental permission to administer.
Polly stated that they were working on that right now. The possibility of acquiring antigen tests was late breaking news. They’re still working on what consent would look like and how to communicate that to AASD families.
They then moved into the Safe and Resilient Return Report
The district used a 65 point checklist to complete safety audits of all their elementary, middle, and high schools. Greg Hartjes reviewed the outcome of those audits.
Per Greg, a leadership team member and staff member from facilities and operations walked every building with the principal and the building engineer [side note: schools have building engineers?]
Amongst other things, they reviewed the entrances and hallways to be used by the students and made sure that their procedures for how students enter and leave school all fit with the mitigation strategies.
A lot of the buildings needed more signage, but most everything else was in place.
Isolation Rooms are new. They’ve never had them before. Some good questions came up such as how much time should the isolation room paraprofessional spend in the room? Should they have a desk outside? Where should the phone be located? Should they have a walky-talky? Polly and the school nurses have been working on the isolation room protocols.
They looked at classrooms carefully to make sure desks were 6 feet apart. If they couldn’t be 6 feet apart, they were placed in pods of 3 or 4. If a student ends up being covid positive, they will quarantine the other 3 students in the pod–not the entire classroom.
Gary Jahnke wanted to know if there were any items that they weren’t able to get that may undermine some of the mitigation strategies that have to be in place on January 19.
Per Greg, the only one they’re struggling with are the fire resistant sneeze guards/plastic barriers. Those are to be used when they can’t keep kids 6 feet apart or in a pod. More often they’re using them when, for example, a guidance counselor wants to meet with a student one-on-one in their office ane their office doesn’t allow them to keep 6 feet apart. They have 1,500 plastic barriers spread throughout the district and will be getting 500 more on 01/18/2021. Those were the only items he could think of that they’ve struggled to get. A lot of their supplies were ordered over the summer and were in place before the first student came in September. They have pallets of supplies stored in Facilities and Operations. They have thousands and thousands of hand sanitizer buckets and those types of supplies.
The challenge with the barriers is that non-fire resistant ones are easier to get but the fire department has not allowed them to use those.
Gary stated that there may be some angst among people who don’t want to be in person but the degree of thought and the mitigation strategies that are going to be in effect is really very impressive. He hoped those would quell concerns and help people feel safe or safer.
Greg stated that they [i.e. the people who are concerned] play a role. They have to make sure that they’re enforcing the mitigation strategies in their classroom and how they operate with their colleagues in the staff room. So, yes, AASD is going to put everything they can in place and then it’s really up to the staff and students to utilize those strategies. [I found that comment interesting because it gave the impression that the pushback to returning to school is mainly originating from teachers–not parents and students.]
Greg continued that every school is looking at how they will function when only two students can be in a bathroom at a time. Do they have students line up in hallways? He went through elementary schools and was impressed with the plans principals have in place and how they’ve already shared these plans with students and staff.
He did mention that in their 65 point checklist they forgot to add anything about elevators. They aren’t used a lot–just used by students with physical disabilities–but they will be adding that to their checklist and getting that back out to the buildings.
Judy stated that everyone needs to work together from the students to the staff to the families making sure they do their checks in the morning before they come to school. It’s going to take partnership from everyone for this to work.
Kris Sauter appreciated the safety efforts that are planned and in effect, but she was still concerned about safety. One of the big questions she heard from people has to do with enforcing the masking policy and what that will look like. She had a couple of parents contact her and tell her that they want their kids to go back to school but are really worried about whether that policy will be enforced and how many tries does a student have before they are moved back to a virtual setting. She also wondered how eating in classrooms will look.
Per Judy, they’ve built in to their behavioral expectations regarding masking. The first offense would result in a reminder, the second reminder would result in re-teaching possibly with an Office Discipline Referral, and the third would result in talking with a parent about moving back to virtual. It’s built in a progressive way and would be enforced at the classroom and building level.
Polly spoke about students with special needs. The students who have ADA accommodations have a form that is vetted through their physician that goes back to their school nurses to review, but it still has to look at the health and safety of all of our staff and students. If the school can provide that accommodation and still keep staff and students safe they will do so, but safety is their top priority. If the accommodation can’t be met while continuing to keep students safe, that child may have to continue learning virtually. If the student is working on masking and is increasing their stamina for masking, maybe they have to be in a different classroom where they won’t be around 20 peers. Maybe they will be in a smaller group where they can socially distance even more than the 6 feet, and then they build into that. They will be reviewing the accommodation and whether they can still keep that student and other staff safe. There may be a time when, even for those who have accommodations, that virtual learning is the safest option for them as well as the school staff.
Regarding lunch, one of the things students will experience is that there will be limited if no talking going on during lunch. It will be a time to eat and then put their masks back on so that they are not spreading those particles with their masks off. They’ll be focusing on facing in one direction and also limiting their talk and getting their masks back on as soon as possible. The schools will also be running their air handlers even more during those times to bring in fresh air from outside so that they get the air fresh and cleaned up.
Nan said that in some schools, depending on the building footprint, students may be eating their lunch in their classrooms or in a multi-purpose room or a lunch room or a gym. Some buildings may have a mixture of all three.
Ben Vogel stated that at the high school level there will be a 35 minute lunch/advisory period. They’ll be small, controlled environments and classrooms where the students will take the first 15 minutes to eat, then things will be put away, cleaned up, masks back on, and then they will have the advisory portion of the period.
James Huggins said that at the middle school level they will have designated lunch locations which were part of the safety audit walkthrough. Those will be a common space/large group area/cafeteria. Every building will be a little different in how students are spaced and appropriately distanced. They will have designated seating that is appropriately spaced apart and arranged facing in the same direction.
Kris wanted to know what the distancing would be during lunch. 3 feet? 6 feet?
James said that they have staggered grade levels and groups of students reporting for lunch at the middle school sites and they will be spaced 6 feet apart. There’s a protocol in place not only for seating in the lunch room but also for when the students are in line and proceeding through the lunch room and also when they return to class.
Nan said that the one exception would be if the students are in a learning pad. The learning pads are 6 feet apart from each other, but the students within the learning pad are not distanced from each other.
Ben said that the same protocols were in place at the high school level.
Deb Truyman wanted to know what the next step is. What will they be looking for before they would think of moving the 5th-6th graders or the high schoolers to fully in-person instruction?
Per Judy, they will continue to track exactly what they are now regarding transmission rates. As they continue to see success then that will give them a benchmark to say “Okay, we know we’re having success, so what could we accomplish?” The challenge with particularly 5th and 6th grade is the class size. And they know that distancing is very important and that will be a factor for them. The increased testing as well as the vaccine availability will also be factors that play into decisions. They’re tracking things very closely and will continue to do so.
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