The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Officials outline plans for reopening
The Amherst School Board met for the first time in-person in months July 13 to discuss ongoing decisions and plans for reopening the district’s buildings for the 2020-21 school year during this novel coronavirus pandemic.
Board President Valerie Neidert said during the meeting that the district plans to reopen all buildings Aug. 20 on a seven-hour, fiveday a week schedule.
An online survey relayed to parents came back and was evaluated to further help district administrators come to a decision, Neidert said.
“The vast majority of Amherst families in that survey stated that they were ready to go back to a physical return of schools,” Neidert said.
With about 23 percent of parents still uncomfortable with this option, Superintendent Steve Sayers said the district also is working on an online learning option for the new year.
Neidert said those online learning plans, as well as building-specific plans, will be available for parents near the end of the month and based on maintaining distancing, hand washing, screening and assessing symptoms, cleaning property and face coverings.
Revisiting transportation, lunch, recess and visitation policy and guidelines were discussed as a part of those plans, she said.
“This has been, and will be, a challenging time for all, but we are fully dedicated to providing high quality education for all of our students while minimizing and mitigating the risk of COVID-19 to our students and staff,” Neidert said.
Sayers said in these reopening plans, many guidelines will have to be building specific, since different protocol already is in place from school to school.
“We know arrival and dismissal is very different at Powers (Elementary School), for example, than it is at the (Marion L. Steele) high school,” he said.
While the district is working on those plans, the need to stay flexible remains prevalent, as administrators are unsure how the pandemic will unravel near the end of the year, Sayers said.
The district and its principals have worked with staff and teachers to see who is willing to teach online, as well as give feedback on guidelines, he said.
“Our staff is our greatest resource in terms of working through these kinds of problems,” Sayers said. “They’re on the front lines, and they know the day in day out challenges of their particular job.
“We’re working hand-inhand with them.”
Board member Ron Yacobozzi said purchasing and installing plastic guards for main offices and front desks also would help reduce the spread.
Yacobozzi, along with other board members, expressed concern with the snowball effect that infection could bring to the district.
“If there is testing, who pays for it?” he asked in the meeting. “If someone tests positive, say a teacher tests positive, and the teacher has 100 students, do those 100 students now have to get quarantined and tested?”
“The vast majority of Amherst families in that survey stated that they were ready to go back to a physical return of schools.” —Amherst School Board President Valerie Neidert