Thursday, March 28, 2024

Third School Reopening Stakeholder Meeting with Focus on Transportation

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Tracey Beckendorf-Edou, Cascade School District (CSD) superintendent, convened the third session of the Reopening Stakeholders’ Group on July 15th over Zoom. She first shared an update from the state that instructional hours will be allowed to include remote and hybrid education, giving the district more flexibility.

CSD expects families to have educational choices and can gauge their comfort level with each choice. Students will be able to attend full day of in-person or morning in-person with afternoon remote (the child would be picked up before lunch by parent). Additionally, there has been a doubling of interest in Home Link. A final choice will be the new Kodiak Virtual Academy for 6th to 12th graders, with information and registration available soon.

The superintendent iterated key points: 1) the schools can meet the health safety criteria, 2) students will be six feet apart, thanks to swapping out tables for desks, 3) they will wear face coverings, 4) there will be sanitation of surfaces, increased hand-washing and open windows to help with ventilation.

Thus, school can resume, but it will not look like the “normal” of the past.

Parents are encouraged, at this meeting and in a district-wide letter from the superintendent, to contact their school’s principals about what choice of instruction they prefer. Sometime next month, parents will have to make a firm commitment, so logistics can be worked out.

Younger children who learn remotely in the afternoon might have a different teacher for that segment because the teachers would not be expected to teach both in-class and remote at the same time. However, this is not so different than the current model which involves regrouping occasionally.

Middle school and high school students would likely follow an A day/B day schedule, so they would have an opportunity be with all of their teachers in-person half the time.

When the conversation switched to transportation, Tim Bentz, Transportation Director, shared the good news that most bus routes can accommodate being only half full so students are well-spaced. There are three routes, all in the Peshastin/Dryden/Cashmere area, that tend to have filled seats. It might be necessary to add extra routes to lower the number of riders per bus in that area.

Children will have assigned seats and fill the back of the bus first. Siblings will sit next to each other. A few windows will be opened partway to allow for good air circulation. Bentz believes the temperature inside the bus will not drop to uncomfortable levels, at least not for the first few months.

Bentz described the bus disinfection protocols that have been in place since February. The bus drivers disinfect the seats, backs and hand rails once per day. The rate could increase to twice per day if necessary.

A question about how temperatures would be checked for bus riders expanded into a larger discussion about the daily temperature checks and health screenings. Hopefully, staff will be able to self-screen at home. For students arriving at school, using a no-touch thermometer and staff asking screening questions could cause delays into entering the schools. Beckendorf-Edou said the district purchased one walk-through style temperature checker, which might improve efficiency.

As for bus riders, parent Mary Jo Sanborn suggested children could have a visible tag on their backpack to serve as proof that parents have cleared their child as healthy and able to ride the bus. Sam Jerome, Cascade Medical RN and Employee Health Nurse, liked the tag idea because the bus driver could assess it quickly and no one would have to touch it. The tag could serve a second purpose of having the assigned seat number written on it to help kids remember.

Using thermometers on the bus routes would be problematic because of the time it takes to use, the need for a second adult on every bus and also thermometers’ lower accuracy in cold weather.

Parent Annie Schmidt cautioned, “A robust health check won’t happen every day for busy parents, so spot checks of temperatures would be useful.”

Beckendorf-Edou assured the group that there would be some level of secondary checking when children arrived off their buses.

The arrival at schools of hundreds of students simultaneously is another logistical puzzle. To ensure spacing and safety, students might have staggered entry by grade level.

Firm caution will be taken in terms of any and all possible COVID-19-like symptoms. Congestion, for instance, will be reason for students or staff to stay home.

Beckendorf-Edou asked the group whether families owned a thermometer. Most thought not. School Board member Cyndi Garza suggested a special campaign to raise funds for purchasing thermometers could occur.

It was mentioned that every classroom should be equipped with a thermometer as well, because sometimes children develop a fever in the middle of the day.

The meeting began and closed with the reminder that to have kids safe going back to school, the whole community needs to control for COVID-19 now by masking. Gathering with folks outside one’s household should happen with extreme caution and while wearing masks.

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