Jefferson County school district officials said they are waiting to hear from the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education about whether students will need to make up the days they miss while classes are canceled over the next few weeks in response to the COVID-19 coronavirus.
The districts canceled classes beginning Wednesday, with plans for the closure to last at least until April 6.
All school-related activities, including sports practices and games, have been called off, too.
District officials said they don’t know whether the closure will affect graduation this year.
Also, the officials said their campuses will be deep-cleaned during the closure.
Dunklin
Dunklin R-5 School District officials are struggling with how to handle major school events, spokesman Matt Lichtenstein said Tuesday.
“We had prom scheduled for April 4, and it’s been postponed,” he said. “We will continue to look for ways to have prom and graduation this school year. We don’t know what (such events) will look like because of CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) recommendations.”
Those recommendations call for limiting the size of gatherings and taking other precautions to avoid contracting and spreading the disease.
Lichtenstein said the Dunklin Board of Education was scheduled to meet Tuesday evening, after the Leader deadline, and planned to discuss how to handle pay for teachers and other employees affected by the school closure.
“All essential personnel will be at work during the closure period,” he said.
Lichtenstein said provisions were made for students to either take home school work or have access to online school work during the closure.
“All of our teachers are putting information on a Google drive that can be accessed by students and parents for school work,” Lichtenstein said. “These are activities that provide structure and reinforce lessons they have learned.
“Middle school and high school students will have Chromebooks. Fifth grade and younger all are getting paper work.”
Lichtenstein said the district will provide meals for students whose families register for them.
“We will be making food available for students and deliver the meals by the buses,” he said. “It’s free. We are calling parents (Wednesday) to see if they’re interested. They can also sign up for the meals online. That starts (March 20). The buses will start delivering the meals at 9 a.m. The meals will be available Monday through Friday.
“We’ll also have a grab-and-go lunch at the high school Monday to Friday. They can go there during designated times and get the lunches. The grab-and-go at the high school will be 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. It starts March 23.”
He said the meals will be provided through at least April 3.
Hillsboro
Hillsboro R-3 School District Superintendent Jon Isaacson said Monday there had been no move to alter or change the pay district employees receive.
“Our teaching staff is still working to provide items for students, preparation of items for this year and next year and other tasks,” he said. “They will receive pay as normal. Non-salaried employees will continue to be compensated. Their roles in the district may be altered, but they will be working to support the district in other areas, such as homework distribution, cleaning, preparation of items for the return to school or assist in supporting our district and community.”
Hillsboro teachers are providing students with school work through the internet during the closure, he said.
“Our teachers are working on this today, using Google classroom, and other apps,” he said Monday. “We will not rely solely on online instruction districtwide due to student access concerns.”
Festus
Festus R-6 School District Superintendent Link Luttrell also said, like at other area districts, Festus teachers are making classroom information available online for students during the closure.
“We have both online options where they have learning opportunities, as well as paper packets for younger kids we’re sending home with them,” he said.
All district employees will be paid during the period Festus schools are closed, Luttrell said.
“Our Board of Education is committed to paying all employees their regular pay during the closure,” he said.
Festus R-3 is offering sack lunches and breakfasts free to any district student starting March 24. The lunches will be provided each school day from 10 a.m. to noon outside the Festus Elementary School’s upper cafeteria near Sunshine Drive. Participants need to register online.
Fox
The Fox C-6 School District’s spring break is scheduled from April 6-10, so it looks like the earliest those students could return would be April 13.
Like other schools in the county, Fox used classes on Monday and Tuesday to prepare students to continue learning from home, Superintendent Nisha Patel said.
She said the district will have students use both online learning and traditional, pencil-and-paper learning methods while they’re away from school.
“One of the main reasons we wanted to make sure kids came into school (on Monday and Tuesday) was so teachers could have conversations with the kids,” Patel said. “First, (the teachers) made sure (the students) were OK, and that they know that we will do everything we can to continue their learning at home. Our main goal is to minimize the learning gap.”
Patel said it is important students have more than internet-based learning options because some students may not have access to the internet at home. She also said district officials are “brainstorming” other ways to help students continue to learn without technology during the closure.
Along with giving teachers and students a chance to map out how to handle the closure, Patel said Monday and Tuesday gave parents a chance to plan how to handle their children not being in school.
“There is a lot of planning on the parents’ side as well,” Patel said. “It is going to be a big challenge for parents, working parents especially.”
While schools are closed, Fox’s counselors will continue to work with students and families, and those needing support may email their child’s school to set up services when possible, the district said in a letter sent to families on March 15.
The letter also said Fox will provide “To Go” lunches for students who need them starting Monday, March 23, through Friday, April 3. The meals will be available from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Monday-Friday at Fox High School, 751 Jeffco Blvd., in Arnold, and at Seckman High School, 2800 Seckman Road, in Imperial.
A package lunch for the day, as well as breakfast for the following day, will be provided to students, who must be present and provide their name and student ID number for the meal. A link to sign up for the meals is provided in the letter the district distributed to families.
Patel said contracted, salaried employees will be paid normally, but she and Board of Education members need to discuss the possibility of paying non-contracted, hourly employees during the closure.
The district was expected to hold its scheduled board meeting on Tuesday. However, Fox encouraged community members to live stream the meeting on its YouTube channel, instead of attending the meeting in person.
“As soon as we have that (information of how Fox will handle paying staff members), I can communicate more about that,” Patel said. “We know a lot of people depend on the wages they earn in Fox C-6.”
Windsor
The Windsor C-1 School District also has spring break from April 6-10 and plans for students to return April 13, although that date could change.
Windsor officials started planning for a possible closure last week and put those plans into effect today (March 18), assistant superintendent Jeff Buscher said.
The district is doing its best to deal with a difficult situation, he said
“We are trying to meet all of the needs of all of our students,” Buscher said. “This situation is unprecedented and fluid. We are trying to hit a moving target here.
“I can’t imagine being a kid in this situation. I can’t imagine being a parent with a school-age kid in this situation, especially with seniors who are losing things that were always taken for granted. Prom and graduation could be affected. The best-case scenario is we will return April 13.”
On Monday and Tuesday, Buscher said teachers prepared students for the extended closure by creating online learning opportunities, sending home worksheet packets and informing parents about resources they can use to continue their children’s education.
Windsor High School students each have a Chromebook they took home, and students were allowed to check out classroom and library books before the closure, the district said in a letter to parents and the community.
“Through a survey we have done in the past, we know that approximately 93 percent of our families have reliable, high-speed internet,” Buscher said. “Although nothing replaces being in the classroom, we hope we can pick up and go from there, when we are able to come back.
“The instruction (online work and worksheet packets) we are pushing out is for the upcoming two weeks, and then we will see where we are at. I hope the message will be, we will see you (April 13). If it is not, then we will have to get back with our staff and say now what.”
Buscher said students and parents may communicate with Windsor teachers through email during the closure, and that the district’s Central Office will be staffed while school is not being held.
Windsor also has set up a way for families to pick up district-provided breakfasts and lunches if they need them.
Through Friday (March 20), families may pick up a lunch and breakfast for the next day between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. at a location behind Windsor Middle School, 960 Windsor Harbor Road off of Hwy. 61-67 in Imperial.
Buscher said starting Monday (March 23), the district will have meals available at different locations throughout the district. He said Windsor expects to announce those locations and the time meals may be picked up on Thursday (March 19).
Buscher also said the district plans to make meals available for pickup throughout spring break.
Buscher said salaried employees will continue to be paid as usual during the closure, and the district is finding work for non-contracted, hourly-paid employees to perform during the closure.
“We have projects we can put people on,” Buscher said. “We will work through it the best we can.”