Students in grades K-12 who are enrolled in ISD 166 this fall will attend school online.
That was the decision the school board came to on August 13 after 3 ½ hours of sometimes-heated discussion and presentations by local health officials and two schoolteachers. When the votes were cast, Dan Shirley, Deb White, Carrie Jansen, and Rena Rogers cast their support for online school while Sissy Lunde voted against the resolution.
Per the resolution, the school board will revisit the decision at the conclusion of the fall quarter.
The ISD 166 board was faced with three possible scenarios, sending students to school full-time, splitting the school week up between online and full school days (called the Hybrid model), and having students attend online.
Teachers Emma Spoon and Stephanie Lindstrom presented “Distance Learning 2.0” focusing on the three “Cs” Community, Communication and Consistency.
School and County liaison
Jodi Tervo Roberts was introduced as the county’s liaison with the school district by Cook County Public Health Supervisor Grace Grinager.
Jodi will conduct contact tracing for teachers or students who have been diagnosed with COVID-19.
Technology expenses
Online schooling will be costly due to the needed upgrades in technology. An $80,000 federal CARES ACT grant will help, but isn’t nearly enough to fund the needed upgrades, said Rena Rogers, who besides being a school board member is the county’s IT director and interim county administrator.
When asked where more funding will come from, Superintendent Dr. William Crandall said he would have the school’s financial director Lori Backlund search for more funds.
However, noted Dr. Crandall, even if more dollars are secured, there is a current shortage of Chromebooks, webcams and other technology needed by the school district because so many other schools across the country are using the distance-learning format.
Motions failed and passed
Following three and half hours of robust debate and presentations, school board Chair Dan Shirley called for the board to pass a motion to adopt a base model of 100 percent distance learning for the first quarter, seconded by White. A roll call was taken with Shirley aye, Rogers nay, White nay, and Jansen nay, with the motion failing.
Next, Sissy Lunde motioned for kids to attend school full time, which follows recent COVID-19 protocols sent from the governor. White asked Lunde if she was concerned that a school outbreak could lead to a community outbreak, noting two teenagers were recently diagnosed with COVID-19. Responding to White, Sissy said she was concerned about a possible outbreak, but noted that it was important for students and teachers to interact. This is especially true, said Lunde for special education students who have individual education plans (IEPs).
Lunde’s motion failed 4-1, and so too did Rogers’ motion (3-2) for a Hybrid learning model with social distancing and re-evaluate at the August 20, 2020 regular meeting.
With motions failing and the night growing longer, Board Chair Dan Shirley once again called for the board to pass a motion for distance learning. This time it passed and the 100 people—the limit who could watch the ZOOM meeting online– could finally call it a night.
The motion by the school board seems to follow the July 16-20 poll conducted by Education Minnesota, the union that represents 70,000 Minnesota educators. Results of that poll showed 49 percent of teachers prefer online school during the pandemic while 29 percent prefer a hybrid of distance learning and in-person school; 17 percent prefer classroom instruction.
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