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Date: 2/11/2021
SOUTHWICK – At the Southwick-Tolland-Granville Regional School District (STGRSD) School Committee’s Feb. 4 meeting, Superintendent Jennifer Willard discussed the difference between snow days and remote days along with the vaccination plans for teachers.
During her regular report, Willard discussed some questions she received about deciding a remote learning day or a snow day.
“A lot of our staff live in rural communities that don’t have high-speed internet, so even when we are remote, they come into our school buildings to teach every day because that is where they have the high-speed internet and materials they need to teach remotely,” she said.
Willard clarified that if it is safe to open buildings during inclement weather for teachers to teach, there will be a remote learning day.
“I do make sure that if our school buildings can be open, then there is a likelihood I will choose a remote day. But if it is not safe for our teachers to get to our schools then it will probably be a traditional snow day,” she said.
Ahead of the COVID-19 vaccination becoming available to teachers, Willard said the district is working on a memorandum of agreement (MOA) with the teachers’ union about getting vaccinated along with Southwick’s Health Department about a plan for vaccinating teachers.
“We are working on an MOA with our teachers’ union because vaccinations are right around the corner. We are also working with the town of Southwick on a vaccination plan and rollout for our staff, if possible. We did send a survey out to staff, so we hope if you are anticipating getting a COVID vaccine through the school department please respond to that survey,” she said.
Willard added that if teachers can get the vaccine before the district receives its doses, they should do so.
Among the meeting’s regular business, the committee also approved settlements with the district’s paraprofessionals, custodians, and clerical staff, while also agreeing to extend Stephen Presnal’s contract as the district’s finance director and Erik Wicander’s contract as the supervisor of buildings and grounds.
During his regular report, Presnal gave an update about the district’s current plan to use CARES Act funding through each of the three towns to be reimbursed for some COVID expenses.
“We are continuing our work with partnering with the towns of Southwick, Granville, and Tolland for sharing their coronavirus relief fund municipal program monies that they have not encumbered yet. There is about $106,000 that we could be reimbursed for COVID-related expenses and we’ve been sharing documents and getting each town’s legal review, so work on that is moving along,” he said.
As the committee’s sports liaison, Jonathon Schantz provided an update on planning for the spring sports season from Athletic Direct Dave Sanschagrin.
“They are ready to propose girls’ volleyball, girls’ basketball, boys’ basketball, unified soccer, sideline cheer, and hockey. Hockey would likely be practice only and two to three days a week since they won’t have a lot of time on the ice, he said it would be appropriate for that to be extended,” he said.
Schantz added that those sports would start March 1 and run through April 25, while sports in the second fall season would be cancelled.
“This should come as no surprise to anybody, boys’ soccer, girls’ soccer, field hockey and cross country are not going to move forward for obvious reasons,” he said.
The STGRSD School Committee next meets on Feb. 16.