With the first day of school approaching, only three members of the Eureka Springs school board attended Monday night’s meeting in person. Board President Chris McClung and board member Jason Morris attended by Zoom. One member was absent, and the board had one vacant position following the resignation of Travis Holloway. The remaining board members voted to fill that vacancy with Jayme Wildeman, who will join the table next month.
Much of the meeting dealt with the steps the school will take to deal with the threat of the coronavirus. Supt. Bryan Pruitt showed the board a desktop divider to provide an extra layer of security. The lightweight three-sided enclosures sit on a student’s desk, and have a clear panel in front, between the student and the teacher.
The school has cloth masks and disposable masks on hand, along with large stores of other personal protective equipment. The school has disinfecting sprays, and custodial staff will focus on keeping surfaces clean throughout the school and on buses. Teachers will make adjustments to help avoid large concentrations of students, and classes will move down the hall on a staggered basis.
All unnecessary items have been removed from classrooms to allow more social distancing. Elementary and middle school students will eat in their classrooms.
The school has made plans for assessment and remediation to address time lost at the end of the last school year. Instead of returning to the point in the curriculum where school closed, staff will try to integrate that material into the current curriculum.
From the time students first return to campus, they will begin practicing distance-learning methods in case school closes again. Every student will have a Chromebook, and the school district is establishing additional hot spots around town for those without Internet access.
Morris said Boone County has seen an increase in the number of children testing positive for Covid-19, underscoring the importance of preparing for the possibility of physically closing the school again.
“We hope that doesn’t happen, but we’ll be ready if it does,” Pruitt said. The superintendent emphasized the district’s role in providing academic, physical, social and emotional support for families, and said schools will have additional counselors available.
In other business:
- The board approved policy changes dealing with coronavirus, including additional sick leave for staff. The state will require masks for students over 10 years old, but the local board will call for masks for all students. Any district policies in conflict with the governor’s emergency measures will be temporarily suspended. The school will return to previous policies once the crisis passes.
- The school received bids to level the center of the track to create a soccer field. The project includes additional parking and creating a new area for field events at track meets. The district had hoped for bids closer to $500,000, but the lowest bid came in at $690,000. Board members expressed concern about the price, but noted that the cost could be even higher in the future. Pruitt said some of the extra cost came from the need for some retaining walls. He explained that the original $500,000 figure was an approximation compiled with in-house estimates. The board voted to proceed, and the project has a 90-day completion schedule.
- Elementary teachers will be having their lunch in classrooms with their students. At Pruitt’s suggestion, the board voted to offer free lunch to instructional staff. “This is a nice gesture for our staff, since they’ll be working through lunch,” he said. The board also decided to offer free lunch to students eligible for a reduced-cost lunch. Pruitt estimated the cost to the district at $10,000 for the coming year and said families would benefit from the additional support.
- The board approved a new calendar for the coming year, and teachers had offered input. The start of the school year has been pushed back to Aug. 24, and the first semester will end Jan. 8. The school year will run until May 28, although snow days may extend it into early June.