Christian County school board members heard several back to school and reopening updates during Thursday night’s special called meeting.
Superintendent Chris Bentzel said the plans are in place for students to return to in-person classroom instruction or the Virtual Learning Academy on August 27th. However, he adds they will be watching a conference on August 17th to hear the governor’s guidance on whether students can return to a traditional classroom setting or will need to start the school year using Non-Traditional Instruction (NTI).
Bentzel said he will be asking the board to follow the governor’s recommendation for the reopening of schools and the district is prepared to follow his guidance.
During the reopening plan update, District Health Director Megan Kidd said they will be working closely with the health department and will be made aware of every positive case. In addition, she says there is a transparency letter if there is a positive case in a class.
Kidd says parents will also have to sign a daily student health assessment which is an agreement that if they know their child is sick they won’t send them to school.
Board members also heard an update from Virtual Learning Academy (VLA) Principal Arnelle Wesley, who said they have 2,398 students enrolled in K-12 and should have staffing finalized by Friday afternoon. She said orientation for VLA is August 24th-26th with sixteen different sessions in order to follow social distancing guidelines.
The board also learned the district has a new community partnership with First Care Clinics for expanded COVID-19 testing for students and staff, which will also extend to the community. The clinics’ Director of Operations Mandy Marble said due to a limited amount of parking a patient will need to register online for an appointment to get tested and speak with a doctor. She said the clinic will have two points for drive-thru rapid testing at no cost to the district with results returned within 15-20 minutes.
The next regular school board meeting will be Thursday evening, August 20th, at 6:00.
