School district to re-examine hybrid plan, consider return to full-time on-site learning

By James Grob, jgrob@charlescitypress.com

On Monday this week, Charles City Superintendent of Schools Mike Fisher was expecting to go into Wednesday’s meeting of the school district board of directors and recommend that the district remain in its hybrid learning plan for the foreseeable future.

Plans changed on Tuesday, and there’s now a chance the high school and middle school will open for on-site learning sooner than expected.

Fisher said that Gov. Kim Reynolds released new guidance on Tuesday “that really changes everything.”

“Now we’re asking for more time,” Fisher told the school board Wednesday. “We need more time to talk with more people and the medical board and with students and staff — what do we do with this new guidance?”

The changes Reynolds announced cover guidelines for businesses and schools regarding COVID, including new face-covering guidelines.

Fisher said the new guidance states that if all students are wearing facemasks, and are within the 6-foot radius for more than 15 minutes, they would no longer be automatically subject to quarantine if somebody in that radius tested positive.

Floyd County Public Health Director Gail Arjes, who was at the meeting Wednesday, said this is correct.

“If you both have masks on, you don’t have to quarantine,” she said. “You still have to social distance. There is still a requirement of 6 feet of distance, regardless of if you’re wearing a mask or not.”

Arjes said that earlier in the school year more 100 kids in the district were quarantined, all at one time.

“That number would’ve been drastically reduced had this guidance been in place then,” Arjes said.

The school board voted to direct Fisher to convene a team of teachers, students and leaders to meet with the school board in one week on how to fully and safely transition from hybrid to fully-open. That meeting isn’t officially scheduled yet, but it is tentatively expected to take place next Wednesday evening.

As part of this process, the district announced Thursday that it wants to continue to hear from the community regarding thoughts on how to safely reopen during the pandemic. Those interested are encouraged to offer any input they would like to share, via email, at cccsd@charlescityschools.org. Comments will be shared with the school board.

A recent drop in cases among students and staff in the district helps the cause for in-person learning. Reported cases of COVID-19 in the school district have gone down substantially in the last two weeks. One case was reported over last weekend — a student who had not been at school since the start of the school year — and there were no new cases reported this week, through Thursday.

Last week, the district reported no new COVID-19 cases on Thursday, one case on Wednesday and one on Tuesday. Both of those positive tests were of staff members at Charles City High School. As of Thursday this week, there have now been 44 individuals in the school district who have tested positive since the start of the school year.

“We’ve not had many cases recently, but we were hit hard early on, especially at the high school campus,” Fisher said. “We have had several people get seriously ill, several staff members. We have to take that into consideration — people’s lives are at stake.”

The school board received about a half-dozen emails in support of re-opening before Monday’s regular meeting.

“We absolutely want to be fully open. We know that’s what’s best for kids,” Fisher said. “We have to do it in a safe way, and we’re trying to figure out what that is.”

Fisher said the district will do all it can to abide by the recommendations of Floyd County Public Health.

“We really have to trust them to have guidance for us,” he said. “We understand that we also have to get kids learning, and have to get them back into school buildings.”

Two parents spoke at Monday’s meeting, both favoring a return to in-person learning, while a third sent an email which was read aloud at the meeting, also favoring in-person learning.

“I appreciate all the school district has done to keep our children safe, I do have concerns with continuing under the hybrid plan,” Renee Schradle said in the email. “Please make full-time back-to-school an option for those who are comfortable, and continue School-To-You for those who aren’t.”

Schradle, the parent of an 8th-grader, said that she thought teachers would be doing ZOOM lessons from their classrooms so students at home would still have daily interaction with their teachers and a daily lesson plan.

“This has not been the case with many of my child’s classes,” she said. “For some classes he is given a video to watch and an assignment to complete. He does not have work to complete in every class every day.”

She said that her child is done with his schoolwork in under two hours, and pointed out that elementary students are in school full time and are doing well.

Jen Hoeft and Betsy Gavitt, also parents of 8th-graders, echoed those concerns when they addressed the board at the meeting.

“Since the beginning of the school year, he’s had just 11 days of actual learning in the school building by a teacher,” Hoeft said of her son.

She said her son is lacking structure, engagement and the necessary teaching by being at home, and said she was concerned about what he would retain in just 11 days of learning at school.

“My child deserves an outstanding education,” Hoeft said. “I ask you to consider how that can be received by being taught only 50 percent of the time.”

Gavitt said that she has had discussions with “12 or 13 other families” who all had the same concerns. She said the kids are basically done with their schoolwork at home in less than an hour.

“We don’t feel that the rigor is there,” Gavitt said. “We came into this very complicated year behind the 8-ball.”

Regardless of what the school decides to do, the School-To-You option will remain in place for any parents who choose to take it. School-To-You is a state-mandated online learning option that will be available for the entire school year.

CCHS Principal Bryan Jurrens and CCMS Principal Tom Harskamp told the school board Wednesday that the high school has more than 130 students currently utilizing School-To-You, and the middle school has had  90-100, and currently the number is 83.

“For some families, it’s been working great,” Harskamp said. “Other families have discovered that maybe it’s not the best possible option for their kids, and they’ve come back to school. If kids are struggling with it, we’re encouraging them to come back, even if it is for two-days-a-week.”

Cael Ruzicka, a senior at CCHS who has been utilizing School-To-You, said, “I like what I’m doing. I feel like I can stay on task and get things done. I can see where others might struggle with it a little more than I do.”

Ruzicka said he feels like the classes are rigorous and that he has the support of his teachers, although it’s a different learning style to get used to.

“It’s different for each person,” Ruzicka said. “I feel like I’m being challenged, I’ve learned to like it, but it’s really self-driven. It’s up to me how I get things done.”

He said that he has younger siblings, in 6th grade and 8th grade, and learning from home is more difficult for them.

“The attention span is obviously going to be drastically different, because they’re younger,” Ruzicka said. “I can get things done, normally, but my younger brother needs a little more to get going, just because of the age difference.”

Arjes said that if the school does decide to re-open full time, the district needs to keep many things in mind, such as how mask breaks are administered and ways to safely serve lunch. She also warned that cold and flu season is coming, which could present more problems.

“I do see some benefits in getting the kids back into school now, to get some face-to-face learning, because I have a feeling that we might have to flip back into hybrid at some point during the cold and flu season,” she said.

In response to emails received from parents urging the district to reopen fully, school board member Missy Freund said that the district was trying make the best possible decisions with the information and guidance available.

“We’ve heard from parents who feel their kids aren’t getting enough work at home, and also heard from parents who feel their kids are overwhelmed with work,” Freund said. “I can relate to the frustrations you have, because I have both.”

Freund said that she hoped the community would try to follow the recommendations of public health and the guidelines the school district is requesting.

“We’re not trying to dictate what you do, but if we want to get our kids back into school, we need help from our families and from the whole community to look at what they’re doing and try to make the situation better for everybody,” Freund said. “Please take this seriously, and think about what things are happening in the community, outside the walls of the school buildings. That’s where it’s spreading, so let’s all do our best, so that our students and staff can feel safe and comfortable in school.”