Bremen School Board reports ‘very good success’

BREMEN — The 2020 school year seems to be going well for teachers and students, according to school district principals at the Sept. 16 meeting of the Bremen School Board.

Elementary/middle School Principal Larry Yelaska and High School Principal Bruce Jennings offered their positive observations over the last month.

Both agree that offering in-person learning at the school was a good decision, especially since enrollment is higher than what was previously expected.

“We were really worried last March, and what that would mean for the start of the school year,” Yelaska said. “But I think opening in-person was a huge benefit. We have picked up some students who wanted to be in school and parents who wanted their kids to be in school.”

So far, there have been minimal challenges

posed by COVID-19. There have been very few reported cases at the high school, a fact that pleases Jennings.

“We have not had to deal with it like we anticipated,” he said.

Even at the elementary/middle school, there have been few challenges posed by the extra health and safety rules.

Yelaska said a “majority” of the students always walk in with their masks on.

“They’re not complaining,” he said. “They’re doing a great job.”

Yelaska said he believes much of that good attitude is due to the students’ renewed appreciation for in-person learning.

“As much as we all like to complain about having to go to school when we’re kids, I think once it got taken away, that social aspect was really hard for them,” he said. “So they are glad to be back, to see each other and have that interaction again.”

Yelaska told the board that at the beginning of the school year, there were more than 150 remote students at the BEMS level.

In the last month, however, 60 of them have returned to in-person learning. “I think a lot of our families were concerned about what that consistency was going to look like,” Yelaska explained. “Were we going to stay open? Were kids going to have to quarantine every other day and have to be gone because of contact tracing? But we’ve had very good success, so as a result, we’ve had a lot of kids come back.”

Although Bremen Public Schools is attempting to accommodate and respect those who decided to go with remote learning, online student engagement is posing a concerning challenge.

This is especially true at the high school level, where 54 percent of the 71 remote BHS students are failing at least one class.

“At some point, we need to find out what their motives are for staying home and maybe do some counseling back to school,” Jennings said. “A lot of these kids are lacking self-discipline. It’s a struggle to consistently get them to engage at the high school level from home.”

Jennings said that many, but not all, of the remote learning students struggled with school before the onset of COVID.

Currently, Jennings and Assistant Principal Andrew Rohde are planning on taking a more assertive role in reaching out to the parents and guardians, in hopes that stronger parent-school relationships will benefit the students.

Both principals acknowledged that COVID-19 guidelines do pose extra challenges on teachers, and praised them during the meeting.

“We would like to thank our teachers,” Yelaska said. “Talking through one of these masks … is exhausting. I don’t know how they do it. They’re in front of the kids pretty much all day.”

BPS board meetings are held at 6:30 p.m. on the third Wednesday of the month in the high school media center, and are open to the public.

Attendees are to follow all COVID-19 guidelines.

The meetings are also live streamed on Facebook.com/ Bremenpublicschools for those who wish to attend virtually.