‘The overall feedback has been good’
Teachers, parents ready for school year, Superintendent Tucker says
Staff and faculty in the El Dorado School District have been busy at work since last week preparing for the start of school on Monday.
Professional development for the 2020/2021 school year started last Monday. A lot of time was spent addressing teachers’ concerns and questions regarding the upcoming school year, which is starting amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic; but some time for fun was also made, evidenced by a welcome back video produced by El Dorado High School staff for students.
“The teachers have really great attitudes. They’re excited and we’re working hard,” ESD Superintendent Jim Tucker said last week. “We’re going to be ready when kids come. Things are falling into place.”
Tucker said teachers worked together to plan for “hybrid classrooms” that will be utilized this school year. Most teachers, he said, will be teaching both in-person and virtually simultaneously.
“There will be some pre-recorded lessons, some live lessons, online activities, work that students have to do at home. It’s a pretty good mix of things,” he said. “It’s going to be interesting, that’s for sure.”
Teachers working within the district did have a degree of say on what the return to school would look like; as the ESD developed its Ready for Learning plan over the summer, teachers were asked to sit on the various committees the district created to plan for different aspects of students’ return, Tucker said.
“The overall feedback has been good,” he said.
More than a fifth of the students — about 900, or 22%, Tucker said — enrolled in the ESD have opted for virtual learning through Wildcat Online Academy. The distribution of online learners among the district’s four elementary schools, one middle school, one junior high and one high school is pretty even, Tucker said, and if the COVID situation locally begins to improve, he said he thinks some may choose to return to on-site learning.
“I haven’t gotten any negative feedback (from parents),” Tucker said. “The feelings on COVID have a wide range; but I think people look at the reentry plan, and whether they agree with everything or not, I think they understand it and the need for what we’re doing.”
School is set to look a lot different this year,
both locally and throughout the county, state and country. In El Dorado, the dress codes that may have once elicited an eye roll or frustration from students now require they cover their faces with protective
masks; students will not fill gymnasiums for pep rallies on Fridays; and hallways will bear closer resemblance to roadways than the congregation spaces they’ve been in years past.
“Each school is doing nearly the same thing: they’re trying to eliminate unneeded items in their classrooms, spread the desks out, adding a lunch shift,” Tucker said. “They have dividers in the hallways; we’re doing it like a road to keep people from weaving in and out, and that’s taking place at all the schools.”
Sports resumed a while ago, and while things have gone relatively well for the ESD, Tucker acknowledged that some positive cases did come to light in the course of practicing ahead of this school years’ athletic seasons. He said he thinks coronavirus cases will also be identified during the school year.
“That’s actually going to be the new normal. That’s not out of the ordinary,” Tucker said about cases
found during athletic practices. “I think our coaches and our athletes have done an outstanding job at following the guidelines. … It’s going to be a little different in the building, but I do think it gives you kind of an indication … (though) you are in closer quarters in the building.”
The district does have contingency plans in place in case teachers test positive or are exposed to COVID19 in the course of performing their jobs. The ESD typically contracts their substitute teachers through a company called SubTeach, Tucker said, but this year they’re also hiring 10 full time substitutes that will work full time at the schools in the district.
Teachers who are exposed to the virus and forced to quarantine for the Arkansas Department of Health recommended period of 14 days but still able to teach will be able to do so as well, Tucker said.
“They can quarantine and teach remotely. We’ll put a para( professional) or sub in the classroom,” he explained. “They will continue to get paid. We’re trying to do everything we can to take care of them, because it would be pretty easy to be around somebody for 15 minutes at a distance of less than six feet (the amount of time and nearness to a person with the virus one needs to spend to be considered exposed).”
As students are preparing for classes to start Monday, Tucker said he had one message for them.
“Keep your mask on. It’s the law; it’s the smart thing to do; and I understand people don’t like wearing them — I don’t like wearing my mask even — but we don’t know if we may or may not have COVID, and the purpose of the mask is to keep other people around you from getting ill. So when you’re not wearing the mask, you’re basically saying ‘I don’t care if people around me get sick,’ and I don’t think that’s a wise thing to do,” he said. “Wash your hands, don’t touch your face. If we can do those things, things will go better. It won’t be perfect, but things will be better.”