Charles City to return to full-time, in-person learning Wednesday

By James Grob, jgrob@charlescitypress.com

The doors at Charles City Middle School and Charles City High School will be open wide to all students who want to enter on Wednesday.

At the recommendation of Superintendent of Schools Mike Fisher, the Charles City School District Board of Directors voted 3-2 at Monday’s meeting to return to full-time, in-person learning for all students in grades 7-12.

“I’m really confident that we’re doing the safe thing and that we’re getting kids back to school in a safe way,” Fisher said. “Conditions could always change again, but right now, this seems to be the wisest decision.”

Families who want to keep their kids at home will still have that option. If a student or family chooses the district’s School-To-You program, they can continue to do that and receive full digital home learning.

“That’s always their option, and we will continue to have those full supports in place,” Fisher said.

For everyone else, the school will be fully open to everyday attendance starting at 8:50 a.m. Wednesday.

The number of students using home learning has been as high as 300, and is currently closer to 200. Fisher said those numbers change from day to day.

After contentious discussion Monday, directors Missy Freund, Janiece Bergland and Josh Mack voted in favor of the return to school while directors Pat Rottinghaus and Scott Dight voted against.

Currently, students through sixth grade are attending class on site, full time. Students in grades 7-12 are in a hybrid model, which includes some learning on site and some learning from home.

In October, the school board approved a hybrid decision-making matrix that takes into consideration student absence rates and transmission rates within Floyd County as metrics to determine whether to remain teaching on site, to go back to the hybrid learning plan, or closing school altogether and going to full remote learning.

The two biggest factors to trigger the move to full remote learning include a county COVID-19 test positivity rate of above 20% and a student absentee rate of 10% or higher.

The 14-day positivity rate is the rolling average of the percentage of people who have tested positive for COVID-19 in the previous 14 days in Floyd County.

“The matrix states that if we have five consecutive days of under 10% positivity rate with a negative trend line, that we will fully reopen for 7-12,” Fisher said. “We have seen that over the last five days, including today.”

Data is taken from Iowa Department of Public Health and verified with Gail Arjes, administrator of Floyd County Public Health. Fisher said that the student absentee rate has been consistently under 4% since the students returned from Christmas break. The COVID-19 test positivity rate was 10% on Jan. 20, 9.9% on Jan. 21, 9.0% on Jan. 22, 8.7% on Jan. 23, 9.8% on Jan. 24 and 9.7% on Jan. 25.

He added that there were only three positive COVID-19 cases in the district on Monday, two students and one teacher.

“In my interpretation of the matrix, this would recommend that we reopen,” Fisher said, and added that Floyd County Public Health administrators agreed with his interpretation.

Rottinghaus said she was having a hard time with the decision, and that she thought the data seemed to be trending upward over the last couple of days, not downward as Fisher suggested. She said she thought the district was rushing back to appease a handful of people.

“I’m just not ready to vote yes,” Rottinghaus said. “Anyone who knows me knows that I care deeply about the academic success of all our students, and I really don’t appreciate the people who have recently tried to tell me otherwise.”

She said that COVID-19 is impacting students across the nation and around the world, so she doesn’t buy in to the argument that students in Charles City are “falling behind.”

“I do believe that face-to-face learning is what’s best for kids. I spent 38 years doing just that,” Rottinghaus said. “I also believe that the physical health of our students and staff is extremely important, and I worry about what we don’t know about the long-term effects of COVID and the new variants that are coming out, which are said to be more harmful to kids than previously thought.”

Dight said that he, also, read the trend line differently than Fisher.

“To me, that is not five consecutive days with a negative trend line,” Dight said. “I understand the need and importance of getting everyone back to school, but I’m nervous about this. So many things are out of our control. If the Legislature wants to force us to go back, then so be it.”

Freund said she trusted Fisher’s judgment, and liked that the recommendation had the backing of public health officials.

“I would not agree with Mike’s recommendation if I didn’t feel it was safe for my own kids,” Freund said. “I have a 6th-grader and an 8th-grader, and I truly feel that my 8th-grader can be back in the building and we can be safe about it.”

Bergland expressed concern that teachers wouldn’t have have time to prepare to teach students both in class and at home. Fisher admitted that is a concern the district is working to address.

Fisher said that the district has been planning for a return since last Thursday, and he had made sure the union representatives were on board with the plan.

“We’ve been collaborating with the teachers’ association and the support staff association,” Fisher said. “We wanted to make sure we were clear with them, and that we had their support of the direction we were headed.”

He said he had to make sure the teaching and support staffs had enough notice, and wanted to make sure parents had enough notice so that they could make the necessary adjustments to their plans.

“We also had to work with food service staff to make sure we had enough food and milk ordered,” Fisher said. “They were able to arrange to get proper provisions and supplies by Wednesday.”

Fisher said he is also working with Floyd County Public Health to determine the most efficient way to administer COVID-19 vaccines to teachers and staff when they become available.

“We are anticipating that the vaccine will be available to our staff in the very near future,” Fisher said. “We’re thinking within the next few weeks, but it depends upon a lot of things.”

He said it would not be mandatory that teachers get vaccinated, but the district is strongly encouraging it.

“We are highly recommending it,” Fisher said. “It will be available to all staff if they choose.”