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Date: 8/25/2020
SOUTHWICK – Southwick-Tolland-Granville Regional School District Superintendent of Schools Jennifer Willard discussed enrollment, new guidance and district policy during her State of the Schools presentation at they Aug. 18 School Committee meeting.
To start the State of the Schools presentation, Willard broke down the enrollment numbers based on the plan families selected. Currently 989 students opted for hybrid learning, 338 opted for remote learning, 43 withdrew from the district, while 55 did not respond.
She said that while the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education recommended a return to full in-person learning based on the interactive COVID case map released by the state, there were extenuating circumstances with transportation that would prevent it.
“We are a very large school district geographically and it’s not feasible to bring all of our students back full-time because we wouldn’t be able to transport them in an efficient way. It’s great that we’re unshaded and it’s great that we have very few cases in our three towns but we can’t provide transportation to all of our students with the current restrictions” she said.
While the district will be opening with the hybrid, Willard said the district will be closely monitoring the virus in all three towns.
“We are going to be meeting weekly with [Southwick Health Director] Tammy Spencer and the Board of Health. We’re going to be looking for any trends, patterns, or spikes using the state metrics using this information. We are also going to be looking at our surrounding communities because usually if there are trends in the surrounding communities, you could probably expect to see the same pattern in our towns,” she said.
One of the new guidelines for the district that staff and students must adhere to is that if they show any symptoms of COVID, they are required to stay home.
“If you do stay home and have any of these symptoms you must get a test for COVID-19. Before you return to work you must get a COVID test,” Willard said.
Willard explained that one of the district’s current challenges is hiring permanent substitute teachers for the entire year.
“We don’t want substitutes who are going through various school districts and then coming here day-to-day. So we are looking at building-based substitutes that work only in our schools and that they report on a daily basis. If we don’t need a sub that day, then we will find different learning opportunities and supports that they can do to help our students and teachers,” she said.
She added that these substitutes would be hired before the beginning of the school year and attend the 10-day training period with the rest of the staff before the first day.
During the meeting, the committee also approved two new policies, the first in regard to anti-discrimination and anti-harassment, and the second in regard to wearing face coverings at school.
Under the face mask policy, students of all ages would be required to wear masks at all times at school.
“If this what we need to do to be safe, to keep our numbers down, and safely bring our kids back and make our teachers and parents feel comfortable, then I think that this is absolutely need to do. I’ve had a lot of parents reach out to me and say that the only way they’re comfortable with the full-in is with masks required for everybody,” School Committee Vice Chair Pamela Petschke said.
Willard added that any students that may be eligible for a medical exemption must get a note from a physician and contact their school immediately.
“If you feel that your child is one of the children that will have a medical exemption, we need to have that in place before the beginning of the school year. So I’m asking that as soon as possible you get in touch with your building’s principal and we will figure out what accommodation we will put in place for your child,” she said.
The School Committee unanimously approved both policies.