School Board hears details of back-to-school safety procedures

As the Sept. 14 first day of school approaches, parents and teachers want to know details and on Monday, School Supt. Pete Kudlak explained some safety procedures and said many things are still being worked out.
District procedures have been upended by the COVID-19 pandemic this year.
At Monday’s regular meeting of the Van Buren Public Schools via Zoom, Supt. Kudlak announced teachers are returning the next day and there will be lots of training sessions.
Via Zoom, parent Angela Mears asked when the student schedules for in-person classes will be available for the middle school and high school and Supt. Kudlak said that should be by next week.
He said by Sept. 14, the district should be ready to go. The deadline for signing up for in-person or virtual classes has passed and 63% prefer remote education.
In-person classes are expected to be from 15-20 students in size. Twenty-eight teachers are doing remote classes, four at each grade level, Kudlak said.
He said after school starts, details will be adjusted and so procedures are subject to change.
Kudlak said as far as personal protection gear, masks were delivered earlier that day and shields are coming soon, including “Humanity Shields” which encase the face. There are Plexiglas desk shields in place – a lot of those – and lots of cleaning supplies. He said touch-free hand sanitizer dispensers have been ordered, along with new electrostatic sprayers, one for each building so buildings can be disinfected each night. And, there are plenty of wipes. He said there are buckets with wipes in them and they put the disinfectant on top and the wet wipes are pulled out the top.
He said the bubbling drinking fountains are covered up and bottle filling stations are set. Kudlak said they started putting up signs today for the arrival/dismissal stairways. The arrival/dismissal times are changing and will be fine-tuned, he said.
One more custodian is being hired and four teachers recalled from layoff.
Board president Amy Pearce, who was present by telephone because she was traveling by car, said she read a New York Times article about how districts are reporting virus cases to the community. Some won’t tell anything and others are reporting numbers only.
Kudlak said they need to get their staff members trained on this. He said there is the HIPPA law about health privacy. He said the district will, for example, say McBride has one that tested positive and students that have been in contact with that person will be advised to watch for symptoms and self-quarantine for 14 days.
He said one of the school’s athletes tested positive for COVID-19, so the practices were shut down until after Labor Day. Football now is scheduled for spring.
Kudlak said that the daily health questionnaires for students will now be handled through Google forms, because of the “genius” of Andy Lindsay who worked it out so the forms wouldn’t need to be filled out on paper by parents.
In Monday’s one-hour-and-40-minute meeting, the board also:
• Heard Kudlak announce the death of Dan Fisher that morning. Mr. Fisher was a teacher and coach for many years and the district mourns his loss, Kudlak said. Trustee Keith Johnston said, “Mr. Fisher was a great guy, teacher, and coach who made a big impact on our community”;
• Approved the resignation of Zachery Murray, a teacher at Belleville High School for 3.5 years, as of Aug. 31 for a job opportunity; and the retirements of Spring Jackson from Rawsonville Elementary after 25 years as of July 1 and Jill Atchley of Tyler Elementary after 26 years as of Aug. 21;
• Approved the recalls to employment of district remote assignments for teachers Amanda Mitchell, Anna Albulov, and Ashley Niedert; and teaching positions at Belleville High School for Shanna Johnson and Lawrence Koch, all as of Aug. 25;
• Approved the retirements of bus driver Gloria Nealey after 14 years of service as of Aug. 26 and bus driver Cheryl Campbell after 23 years of service as of Aug. 17; and the resignation of transportation aide Damon Davis as of Aug. 17 after less than one year of service;
• Heard Kudlak report the county-wide Enhancement Millage will be on the November ballot for renewal and it will pass or fail county wide. He said the millage brings $1.6 million to the district, and may be somewhat less because now charter schools are included;
• Heard Kudlak say the Return to Learn plan has been signed into law and the state “keeps changing the plan we’re in the middle of.” He said the new plan has to be approved monthly. “We have to go along with it because they have our money,” Kudlak said of the state. “We have to jump through hoops”;
• Heard reports from board vice president Susan Featheringill and treasurer Kelly Owen on the classes they attended virtually through the Michigan Association of School Boards;
• Heard president Pearce say there will be no band for 300 BHS students this fall, but there is a great film on YouTube of the Belleville band practicing in the heat this summer led by a volunteer; and
• Heard Featheringill, who led the Zoom meeting, say the district is trying to do the best it can with the information it has.