Jefferson R-7 School District Superintendent Clint Johnston said he expects the rest of this school to be as unpredictable as the first several months, making it difficult for administrators and teachers to plan how to best educate students.
“In the education business, we try to have a proactive plan to address situations as they arise,” Johnston said. “With COVID, we have been strictly a reactionary institution, all of us, not just Jefferson R-7, since last March. We have had to react to spikes (of coronavirus cases) that have occurred in our district. As those spikes have come about, we have used procedures to make changes as necessary. We will probably have to use those same procedures going forward.”
Each district has found its own way to provide instruction this school year, offering at least some in-class instruction, as well as online instruction, during the first half of the 2020-2021 school year.
“Our major goal was to open our doors and remain open,” Northwest R-1 School District Superintendent Desi Kirchhofer said. “That was a big win to open and stay open.”
As the first part of the school calendar wound down, Jefferson County school officials looked back at how the year has progressed so far, with an eye to what lies ahead for the second semester in a school year like no other due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It has been a learning experience for everybody,” said Jeff Buscher, assistant superintendent for the Windsor C-1 School District. “As much as we kind of had a warmup last spring for this (when all schools closed buildings in mid-March and switched to distance-learning to finish out the 2019-2020 school year), it wasn’t the same.
“We don’t want to fall behind. We do want to offer a challenging educational experience for kids at all grade levels. That was the challenge. How are we going to be able to somewhat be able to present a normal curriculum?”
The following looks at how county districts have fared so far this school year and what the outlook might be for the rest of the school year.
Crystal City
First-year Crystal City Superintendent Matt Holdinghausen said he is happy with what the district accomplished during the beginning of this trying school year.
Even before the pandemic struck, district officials had decided to switch from a five-day school week to a four-day one for the 2020-2021 school year, with classes held Tuesday through Friday.
Despite the difficulties COVID-19 has presented, the district has been able to maintain that four-day-a-week schedule most of this school year.
In November, students learned entirely online from home for two weeks because too many teachers and students were quarantined due to possible exposure to the virus.
Holdinghausen said he believes students have been receiving a quality educational experience, though.
“I think overall we have done a fine job, and we are still tracking down some areas we are having trouble with and finding solutions,” said Holdinghausen, who was the principal at Crystal City High School before this school year.
At the start of the school year, 400 of the district’s 509 students were attending class in person and 109 were learning only from home, but after the first quarter ended, about half of the students who had been learning virtually returned to school, Holdinghausen said.
He said he expected the number of in-class and virtual students to remain about the same for the second semester, which started Jan. 5.
“Since the start of the year, we have gradually added kids back,” Holdinghausen said. “We think it is best to have kids here.”
De Soto
De Soto Superintendent Josh Isaacson, who’s also president of the Jefferson County Superintendent Association, said flexibility has been the key so far this school year.
When the school year started, the district had 2,069 students attending classes in person five days a week and 562 learning virtually from home, Isaacson said.
However, part way through the first semester, the district switched to a four-day schedule with all students learning virtually on Mondays, and that will continue the second semester.
Twice in November, when numerous staff members were quarantined, the district had to close buildings and have all students learn completely online – once for four days and another time for two weeks.
“Learning and adapting in order to improve is a continual process,” Isaacson said. “We can always improve and continue to do so each day. We are blessed to be able to provide students with Chromebooks, hotspots (to provide internet access) and meals. I know of other areas within the state where they were not as prepared, both physically and financially, and are not able to provide such things to students.”
He also said the district continually looks at ways to improve how students are educated.
“We are focusing on getting a higher level of engagement in every class,” Isaacson said. “Many families have expressed frustrations with balancing work, childcare and supporting at-home learners. We have tried to offer as many accommodations as possible to ensure ongoing access to live meets, resources within the Google Classroom and access to live feedback. We will continue to collaborate with our families in order to provide the very best educational opportunities for all students.”
Dunklin
Dunklin R-5 School District Superintendent Clint Freeman said every day this school year has been a learning experience for everyone in the district, including students, parents and staff members.
“We are way smarter about COVID-19 now than we were in March, but we still have a lot to learn,” Freeman said.
He said Dunklin began the school year with 1,135 students attending class in person five days a week, and 441 students learning virtually, but the number of students learning exclusively from home dropped by to about 300 as the school year progressed.
Freeman also said he expects more students to return to in-person learning in the second semester.
“We have made adjustments along the way, but nothing that caused a lot of pivot,” he said. “We did take a fall break, which was something we hadn’t planned. We added two days to the Christmas holiday break to give some additional rest and mental break for students, facility and staff.”
For the second semester, which began Jan. 5, some changes at Herculaneum High School are expected, the biggest of which will be having teachers dedicated to instructing exclusively in classrooms or virtually, Freeman said.
“We will try to keep kids here five days a week,” he said. “We have been doing it since Aug. 26, and we know kids being in school is the best option for our kids and families.”
Festus
Festus R-6 School District students have been attending class in person five days a week since the start of the school year in August, and the district will continue that learning model as the school year progresses, Superintendent Link Luttrell said.
“I think our staff is doing a tremendous job,” he said. “We were one of the few school districts in the region that offered the five-day option for students from Aug. 24 on. It was a challenge. Our staff worked harder than ever to make sure students, whether they were all virtual or in seat, got the best learning experience possible.”
The district’s 3,134 students began the school with 2,445 students attending class in person, and 689 students learning virtually, communications coordinator Kevin Pope said.
Luttrell said about 49 percent of the students who learned entirely online the first semester plan to return to in-class instruction on Jan. 5.
He also said the district calendar was modified slightly, adding all-virtual instruction days for Feb. 3 and March 3.
Luttrell said it is important to offer as much in-person learning as possible.
“The research has shown across the board that as a whole, most students do not excel learning remotely to the extent they do in person,” he said. “That was highlighted as other districts reported their grades. That was a reason our mindset was as long as we could, we would offer that five-day, in-seat opportunity to the students who wanted to come. We know that is the best learning model.”
Fox
Fox C-6 School District Superintendent Nisha Patel said students will have the option to attend classes in person four days a week when the second semester starts Jan. 19.
Since the start of the school year, the district had followed a hybrid model with about 80 percent of the students attending classes two days a week, with half of those on Mondays and Tuesdays and the other half on Thursdays and Fridays, and then learning online at home the other three days.
The remaining 20 percent of students had been learning virtually all five days.
Fox district officials had planned to expand the number of in-class instruction days during the first semester, but the district put those plans on hold in October as the spread of COVID-19 increased throughout Jefferson County.
“Our hope is to have more consistency in terms of having more in-person days,” Patel said. “We realize that virtual learning is difficult and comes with many challenges, but our students need the face-to-face instruction both for academic reasons and for the social emotional support.”
As of Dec. 18, district officials said 8,262 students planned to attend class in person during the second semester, and 2,239 planned to continue to learn from home. The district was still waiting to hear from families of 378 students about how their children would attend school in the second half of the school year.
Patel said teachers constantly refined how they taught students throughout the first part of the school year to find the best way to provide instruction.
“I do believe our students were able to receive quality education because of our teachers who worked tirelessly,” she said. “Would one say it was ideal? No, but that was due to circumstances that were out of our control.”
Grandview
Grandview R-2 School District Superintendent Matt Zoph said the district wanted to have as many students learning in classrooms as possible when school began on Aug. 25.
The district did close its high school from Nov. 6 through Nov. 30 because a significant number of students and staff were quarantined, but the district was able to keep its middle and elementary schools open during that time.
Grandview started the year with 608 students attending classes in person four days a week, and 142 students learning virtually, Zoph said.
He said about half of the students who learned virtually during the first semester are expected to return for in-person instruction when the second semester starts on Jan. 19.
“We realized virtual was not for everyone,” Zoph said. “We tried to get as many kids on campus as we could. It was a struggle. We saw how difficult it was to reach some kids virtually.”
Zoph said the district has begun being more aggressive about reaching out to families if a student does not attend a virtual class session. He said that trend will continue in the second semester.
“At the start, if a kid didn’t show up to a Google Meet, we didn’t think as negatively about it,” Zoph said. “Then we started making it a requirement, and if a kid didn’t show up, we were going to make a phone call and find out why they weren’t at a Google Meet.”
Zoph said there are still worries about rising COVID-19 cases causing the district to have to quarantine students and staff, which would lead to building closures.
“Hopefully, things will settle down after the winter break and we can get back in the flow that we were in with kids on campus,” Zoph said.
Hillsboro
The Hillsboro R-3 School District Board of Education decided at a special meeting Tuesday to expand in-person class time from two days a week to four days a week for students in all grade levels beginning Jan. 19, when the second semester starts.
Students will attend classes on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays and will learn online from home on Wednesdays.
District officials previously had planned to expand in-class instruction to four days a week for students in kindergarten through sixth grade in November and then phase in the older students, but those plans were put on hold because of the rising numbers of COVID-19 cases in the county.
After some spirited debate Tuesday, though, the Hillsboro school agreed to expand in-class instruction starting this month.
Since the start of the school year, Hillsboro has had about 80 percent of its students following a hybrid class schedule, attending class in person two days a week and learning online from home the other three days. Of those students, half have been attending classes on Mondays and Thursdays, and the other half on Tuesdays and Fridays, and all students have learning virtually on Wednesdays.
The other approximately 20 percent of the district’s students have been learning entirely online from home.
Isaacson said since Oct. 30, the district had been dealing with an increasing number of students and staff members being quarantined after possible exposure to the virus.
“Since the start of school, 546 individuals have been quarantined,” Isaacson said on Dec. 17. “Prior to Oct. 30, it was 115.”
He said the staggered in-person learning days for students had helped keep the district’s quarantine numbers relatively low before the spike.
Isaacson said the schedule only had students away from school a maximum of three days at a time but made contact tracing easier since only one day had to be reviewed to see if someone in the school buildings was exposed to someone who tested positive for the virus.
“You go back two days from when they showed symptoms,” Isaacson said. “If someone shows symptoms and tests positive on Wednesday, you only have to look at Monday or Tuesday, depending on when they were in a building.”
Jefferson
Johnston said the Jefferson R-7 School District has modified its schedule multiple times to better provide in-person instruction for students.
The district began the school year with 942 students enrolled in a hybrid model, with two days of in-person learning and three days of virtual learning. The other 121 students were learning completely online.
However, Jefferson expanded its in-person option to four days of learning per week at the end the first semester, and it plans to continue that model in the second semester.
It has not been easy to keep buildings open, though, Johnston said.
“The thing that has caught me the most is the impact the community spread has had on our school district as compared to the impact the school district has had on the community spread,” Johnston said. “We have not seen a lot of spread in our district among our kids, and we have not seen a high positivity rate among our students and staff. We have seen higher incidents of quarantining because of exposure in our community. That has been challenging.”
Johnston said when the second semester starts on Jan. 6, the district will provide additional face masks to students and staff as part of its protocols to limit the spread of the virus.
“That will bring it up to a total of eight masks. That way the kids can wash them and keep them clean as a precautionary safety measure,” he said. “You do what you can do, and you control what you can control.”
Johnston said the district has not provided the same quality education this school year as it has in the past because of the new way students are receiving instruction.
As a result, the district is looking at ways to offer more summer school options to families to help students catch up, he said.
Johnston also said he is proud of teachers, students and parents for their efforts to make the school year as successful as possible under the tough circumstances.
“They say it takes a community to raise a child, and we have to keep working together,” Johnston said. “I think the schools are prepared to work with parents, and we continue to navigate future issues that will come up.”
Northwest
Kirchhofer said more Northwest R-1 School District students are expected to attend classes in school buildings when the second semester begins on Jan. 19.
The district’s 6,038 students began classes on Aug. 26 with 4,227 students attending school in a hybrid model, and 1,811 students learning virtually, Desi Kirchhofer said.
Elementary school students either attend classes in person five days a week or learn from home online. Students in middle school and high school either attend in-person classes two days a week and learn online at home the other three days, or the secondary students have instruction entirely online from home.
Kirchhofer said when the second semester starts, only about 1,000 students will be learning completely at home.
He also said the district has improved how remote instruction has worked throughout the school year.
“We have learned to do things better when it comes to virtual instruction,” Kirchhofer said. “We have learned which tools work better for our students and families. We have learned to balance the work that is shared with kids and how much to assign.”
However, he said students who have attended classes in person have performed better academically than their remote-learning counterparts.
“That is a little skewed because some virtual students have not engaged at all or intermittently,” Kirchhofer said. “That can sway the data you are trying to collect, when you don’t have students showing up virtually.”
Kirchhofer said Northwest has not had to change its school calendar or close buildings this school year, except for as previously scheduled.
Sunrise
The Sunrise R-9 School District had students in classrooms an extra day a week during each of the three weeks leading up to the holiday break, which started Dec. 21.
Sunrise operates on a four-day schedule, but students attended classes five days a week for those three weeks to make up for the two weeks the district had all students learn remotely as quarantine cases rose to a level that did not allow for in-person instruction, Superintendent Armand Spurgin said.
Since the start of the school year, Sunrise has had the majority of its 350 students attending class in person. But, the district has a remote learning option for families who do not feel comfortable sending their children to school, he said.
Spurgin said the district will provide instruction for the second part of the school year the same way it has since school started on Aug. 25. However, he said adjustments will be made when necessary.
“Early on, we got to the point where we were trying to out-think the virus, and you can’t do that,” Spurgin said. “We decided we were just going to start school and see where it went. Early on, we didn’t know if we would still be in school after two or three weeks. The days kept clicking off, and before you knew it, it was October. Then in mid-October, we had our first shutdown and went virtual for two weeks. We went almost a full quarter without any real issues.”
Despite the need to adjust how students received instruction and when they attended school, Spurgin said the first four months of the school year went as smoothly as could be expected.
“Looking back with everything going on, I don’t think it could have gone any better,” Spurgin said. “Our attendance the days we were in school were really good. Our virtual stuff went smooth. It wasn’t ideal, but it went as well as it possibly could have gone.”
Windsor
When Windsor C-1 School District students started school on Aug. 24, they were attending classes in person two days a week and learning virtually the other day. However, the district has since expanded the number of days students in kindergarten through fifth-grade attend classes in person to four days a week.
The district’s middle and high school students still attend class in person twice a week and learn remotely the other three days. Students also have the option of learning completely online from home five days.
“In September, we thought we would be back to four days across the campus,” Buscher said. “As the numbers played out, that hasn’t happened. We can do some things at the elementary (level) that we can’t at secondary.”
Buscher said each day has been different since the school year began.
“It is always a challenge,” he said. “The only thing that remains the same is kids are resilient. Whatever you give them, they seem to bounce back and find a way to keep going.”
Buscher said Windsor did not have to switch to a distance-learning-only model at any point so far this school year, and he believes all students are receiving the best education possible under current circumstances.
“We are working our tails off to make this a quality experience for the kids,” Buscher said. “We know we are not succeeding in spots. When we get that feedback, we try to make adjustments and get better at what we are doing to find ways to make kids successful.”
