Cautious optimism was in the air at Monday night’s school board meeting. Of the seven board members, five attended in person, and only two connected through Zoom. School principals expressed confidence in students and staff, and each of the three principals mentioned a steady reduction in the number of virtual students.
Principal Clare Lesieur said students in the elementary school are reading The Trumpet of the Swan, by E.B. White, the selection for the “One State, One Book” program. Students have also celebrated the birthday of Dr. Seuss. ACT Aspire testing begins April 19, and arrangements will be made for virtual students to take the test at school.
Middle School Principal Cindy Holt credited High School Principal David Gilmore with finding grant money to establish Zoom rooms in the middle and high schools. She said the facility in the middle school will be “state of the art,” and accommodate an entire class at one time.
The next school board meeting may take place there, instead of the Middle School cafeteria, where recent meetings have been held to allow social distancing.
Holt said 195 students are currently enrolled in the middle school, and 157 of them attend in person. Students are preparing for ACT Aspire testing, which begins April 12, and have begun practicing for soccer and track. A shuttle will take kids to the fields at Lake Leatherwood twice a week after school.
Gilmore said the number of virtual students in the high school has also steadily declined, with only 36 of 192 students online. Juniors were scheduled to take the ACT test March 9. “We have a really solid junior class,” Gilmore said, and expects test scores to help with college admissions and scholarships.
The first home soccer game will be March 18 at the new soccer field. The scoreboard has been mounted, and Gilmore described a lot of excitement about playing on campus. The track team has begun training, and a grant from Arkansas Game & Fish will help support the shooting sports program. Renaissance students will be rewarded with a trip to the bowling alley in Berryville on March 17.
Gilmore said that the high school will go ahead with prom on April 30 at the Crescent Hotel. He said the event would meet state guidelines for gatherings.
The school district will have to submit a plan in May regarding virtual learning for the 2021-22 school year. Supt. Bryan Pruitt surveyed teachers and administrators and found an overwhelming interest in returning to face-to-face instruction for all. Pruitt said only a third of virtual students are thriving in that format. Those families wishing to remain on distance learning will have the option of joining the virtual academy offered by the state.
Pruitt said all the teachers considered in-person schooling especially important at the elementary level. “We want to produce a student here academically prepared and ready to be successful,” Pruitt said.
Teachers good at multi-tasking
Gilmore mentioned the difficulties teachers have encountered in trying to juggle in-person students and virtual students at the same time. He said larger schools have sometimes been able to assign teachers specifically to distance learning, but teachers here have had to do both. Holt echoed those concerns, saying teachers have done a good job at a difficult task. “There’s not a person in this building who said, ‘I hope we get the virtual back up,’” she said.
Pruitt said the school would still have to develop a plan for Alternate Method of Instruction days. The district had 12 snow days this year, but those days will not be added to the end of the year, because students had AMI materials to pursue their schooling at home. The superintendent said the school has one computer per student, which helps make the AMI program possible.
Masks still mandatory
Only 39 students have tested positive for Covid-19, Pruitt said, although more have been quarantined. He said the school will maintain its mask mandate through the end of the year, even if the governor rescinds the state restrictions. “We’ve done really well, but another wave could come, and if we back off too much, it could be hard to get the kids masked again.”
Board members were asked to think about the future of virtual education. They will have to make a decision at the April board meeting to have a plan submitted in time.
The school board election set for May 18 does not have any contested races.
The board approved the calendar for 2021-22. The school year will start Aug. 16 and will include 178 student days. Teachers will attend 190 days, including in-service training. The personnel policy committee had previously signed off on the calendar.
At the outset of the meeting, Pruitt recognized Board President Chris McClung as an Outstanding Master Board Member, representing more than 50 hours of board training.