Schools prepare for in-person learning

Superintendent Jody Wiggins outlined the steps the district is taking to keep students and staff members safe this school year, during Thursday’s school board meeting.

Schools across the state are scheduled to reopen on Aug. 24 after closing for in-person instruction in March because of the covid-19 pandemic. More than 600 students have opted to attend school in the district’s new virtual academy but approximately 4,300 will be returning to campuses.

Wiggins’ report covered topics such as face coverings, screening, social distancing, lunches, visitors to campus, transportation, cleaning and sanitizing buildings, instruction and athletics. Assistant Superintendent Shane Patrick also gave a report about how positive covid-19 cases within the district will be handled.

School administrators worked to put the plan in place with input from a community ready for learning committee, Wiggins said.

All students and staff members will be required to wear face masks when social distancing isn’t possible, Wiggins said. Many rooms don’t have space for socially distancing, but there will be designated areas where students can take a break from their masks throughout the day, he said.

Staff will not be screening students or other staff members when they arrive at school, Wiggins said. Instead, parents are asked to screen students with a list of Arkansas Department of Health (ADH) provided questions before students get on the bus, walk or ride to school.

The district has been screening staff members’ temperatures when they come to work over the summer, but temperature checks for students and staff members will not be required as the school year begins, Wiggins said. Parents and staff members are also expected to screen temperatures at home, he said.

Statistics show that 70 percent of children who test positive for covid-19 do not show any symptoms so ADH and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidance states that temperature checks are not an adequate way to stop the spread of infection and don’t protect people from asymptomatic children, Wiggins said.

The maintenance department has installed dots and center lines on the floors of the hallways to remind students to socially distance and has worked to space desks in classrooms to socially distance students throughout the day, Wiggins said.

Each school has added a lunch period so that cafeterias will be at less than 50 percent capacity at all times, Wiggins said.

Visitors to campus will be allowed in school offices as long as they wear face masks but will not be allowed inside schools, which means parents of elementary school students will not be allowed to walk their children to their classrooms, Wiggins said.

Students will be assigned seats on the buses in family groups and will be loaded

from back to front, then unloaded at the end of the day in reverse order, Wiggins said. Assigned seats will be the same for morning and afternoon, he said. There will not be room for social distancing on buses, but students will be required to wear masks, he said. Parents are encouraged to bring their students to school if they don’t feel comfortable putting them on a bus, he said.

School buildings will be cleaned and sanitized often, Wiggins said. Custodians will be working throughout the day with added responsibilities and additional measures will also be put in place at night, he said. Hand sanitizer will be available throughout the district and students and staff members will be trained to wash and sanitize their hands throughout the day, he said.

The district has purchased additional technology, including laptops and document cameras, to prepare teachers in case they have to work from home again, Wiggins said. The district is in the process of providing professional development for the new technology and to give teachers strategies to better serve students in the classroom and from home, he said.

On Thursday, Wiggins reported that athletics competitions for volleyball and football were still in limbo, but on Friday, Gov. Asa Hutchinson and the Arkansas Activities Association announced schools could proceed. Wiggins said that band and choir have very strict restrictions on practice. Both practices have to be conducted outdoors, with choir members wearing masks and spaced six feet apart, and band members wearing masks and spaced 12 feet apart, he said. the state hot line.

The state has given districts a three-tiered response level, Patrick said. The ADH will work with the district on a caseby-case basis determine the correct response level and to keep from shutting down entire school buildings or the entire district when really only a classroom may need to be shut down, he said.

The superintendent and the ADH will also take the number of cases in the community into account when deciding whether or not to close schools, Wiggins said. The state has provided a new tool that breaks down cases by cities and by geographic school districts, he said.

As of press time on Tuesday, Siloam Springs School District had the highest number of cases per capita in Northwest Arkansas, with 86 active cases, or 37 per 10,000 people, according to the Arkansas Center for Health Improvement (ACHI) website, achi.net. The city of Siloam Springs had 84 active cases, the ACHI website stated.

When students and staff members test positive, their probable close contacts will be traced, Patrick said.

Probable close contacts are people who have spend a cumulative 15 minutes in a 24 hour period within six feet of someone who tests positive, Patrick said. Positive close contacts will be traced for three days before symptoms begin or 48 hours before an asymptomatic person tests positive, he said.

Patrick will collect information and give it to the ADH, and state officials will determine who the probable close contacts are, he said. Once a person has been determined to be a probable close contact, the school district will request they quarantine for 14 days and encourage them to see a doctor or get tested. Quarantine will still continue for people who have been exposed but test negative because they could still test positive a few days later, he said.

Individuals who test positive will have to be isolated for at least 10 days or until they haven’t had symptoms for 24 hours, Patrick said.

“It’s confusing for some people because it seems like they are held to a shorter period of time if they test positive, but the reason is that (10 days) is the course of the virus and the longer 14 days is because every incubation period is different for each individual person,” Patrick said.

The district has developed a plan for school nurses to deal with students who might show symptoms at school.

The number of students and staff members who test positive will be reported on the district’s website, Patrick said.

The state has changed the definition of absences, so sick related absences will be excused, Wiggins said. Students who stay home sick and attend school virtually will also not be counted absent, he said.

Staff members are being trained to stay home if they have any symptoms, even if they think the symptoms are not covid-19 related, Wiggins said.

“I know it’s been put on the school district to keep the community safe but it’s also vital that the community keeps the school district safe and that parents are diligent in checking temperatures,” said school board member Grant Loyd. “It’s very important in the work you are doing that the community helps the school district stay safe as well.”

School board members took the following actions during the meeting:

• Approved an agreement for speech language therapy services with Jasmine Nile.

• Hired Halley DeGaish,

high school science teacher.

• Approved the transfer

of three students from the Gentry School District into the Siloam Springs School District.

• Approved the transfer

of four students from the Siloam Springs School District into the Gentry School District, one student into the Farmington School District and two students to the Fayetteville School District.