Public questions school district at online ‘listening posts’

By James Grob, jgrob@charlescitypress.com

One way or another, the Class of 2020 will have graduation ceremonies.

“We will have a graduation ceremony, even if it’s at a future date,” said Charles City High School Principal Bryan Jurrens. “That’s a celebration — that’s a culmination of years of work.”

Jurrens and several other school administrators, teachers, support staff and board members addressed the public twice on Tuesday — once in the morning and once in the evening — at online “listening posts.”

As many as 130 people logged in on Facebook to listen, ask questions and leave comments. A wide range of issues was covered, but the most common questions regarded graduation plans for seniors and whether or not school will resume at all this year.

“I would love to know the answer to that,” said Charles City Superintendent Mike Fisher, who noted that all Iowa school districts are waiting for a recommendation from Gov. Kim Reynolds.

“In my opinion, it would be really hard for us to go back right now, with cases of COVID-19 increasing. I don’t really see a lot of avenues on how we’d come back this year,” Fisher said.

There were indications that guidance from the governor would come through an official statement this week. Previously, Reynolds had closed all school districts in Iowa through May 1. Charles City has said it will shut down until at least May 4.

Jurrens said that when a decision regarding graduation ceremonies is made, the school district will give plenty of advance notice, “because we want that to be a celebration with family.”

He said the district is currently working under the assumption that graduation will be moved, although it’s currently difficult to assign a specific date, because there’s no predicting how the COVID-19 situation will progress.

“If you are a graduating senior this year, you’ll still graduate on time,” Jurrens said at the listening post. “We’ll mail diplomas out, even if we don’t have the ceremony until later.”

Activities Director Todd Forsyth said the school district is taking much of its direction from the Iowa State High School Education Association and the Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union regarding other senior honors, athletics and activities.

Forsyth said the Northeast Iowa Conference is looking into a shortened schedule for baseball and softball. Practices are currently scheduled to start May 18, with games now pushed back to start June 1. Previously, spring sports were supposed to start May 3, with state events scheduled in early June.

Forsyth said the district is looking to present the annual Comet Choice Awards online in a virtual ceremony, while prom is on hold as of now.

“We would love the opportunity to hold that for our students,” Forsyth said. “I don’t know what that will look like at this time, but we will get that information out as soon as we can.”

One parent at the listening post asked if the district was considering starting classes earlier next fall. Fisher said that was an option, but not one the school district was currently exploring.

“In theory, we could start earlier, but there are a lot of financial barriers to that,” Fisher said. “We’d have to find a way to pay our staff to do that. Also, we start to conflict with prescheduled family vacations and other events.”

Fisher said he didn’t know what the status of the virus will be in August, so he’s not even going to speculate right now.

The school district will not have to make up days missed this year.