Editor’s note: This story has been updated from the print version in the March 25 paper due to new information that was received Monday night, March 23 after our press deadline.
“This is just going to be a really weird year.”
Parents, students and school leaders learned last week that the coronavirus school closure would be extended to May 1 in Indiana. The previous return-to-school estimate had been April 6.
Brown County Schools Superintendent Laura Hammack found out about the extension at the same time the rest of the state did, she told parents and teachers during a Facebook Live chat that evening, March 19.
“I have no question at all that the state has our back and has the backs of our students. They whole foundation of the Department of Education is kids first, so we’re going to make sure our seniors are graduated, every class moves up to the next grade level, all of those things will be happening. This is just going to be a really weird year,” she said.
Brown County students have not been in class since March 13 because of spring break week.
The governor has allowed all Indiana school districts 20 “waiver” days from the 180-day requirement for student instruction due to the pandemic. BCS is using five of those days this week and five the last week of March, leaving 10 others to use throughout the spring.
During “waiver” days, students do not have assignments that they’re expected to complete online or otherwise.
With this new extended closure, the district had been planning to deploy eLearning days beginning on April 6. However, in a Facebook Live chat the evening of March 23, Hammack told parents that due to the governor’s statewide travel restrictions, and the stress that eLearning can put on households, she had decided to “take traditional eLearning off the table” at least for the foreseeable future.
Hammack said she planned to lobby the state for additional waiver days for rural districts like ours that have extremely limited broadband access, and where not every family has a device that can access the internet. That becomes even more problematic at a time when people are being urged to stay home to help “flatten the curve” of virus transmission worldwide.
It is possible that school could be out longer than May 1, even to the end of the school year, she acknowledged.
“If you have a senior in your world, just lift them up in your thoughts,” she said. “This is unlike anything we could have ever imagined for this class.”
“We’re not cancelling anything yet,” she added. “… We haven’t canceled prom. We haven’t canceled graduation. We haven’t canceled the celebration of our cum laude grads. … For a senior, we’re waiting on guidance from the Department of Education. They’re really working on how we get our kids to graduation. Obviously, there are some strategies we’re working on. … If you were on track to graduate anyway, you have nothing to worry about. If you had gaps with where you were and graduation was going to be tight, we’re going to work with you 100 percent,” she said. “… We just don’t know the specific details yet.”
About spring sports, Hammack told parents in a Facebook Live chat on March 23 that she’d been hearing “super hopeful” things from the Indiana State High School Athletic Association. If classes resume on May 1, teams would be able to start completing once they get five practices in, she said. That would allow for an abbreviated season.
It is known that all state assessments will be canceled, Hammack said, so that when students get back into class, teachers can focus on instruction and won’t have to be concerned about mandated testing.
Feeding students
This week, Brown County Schools begins a free meal program for all students regardless of whether or not they were on free or reduced lunch while school was in session.
Brown County Schools will provide a “grab and go” breakfast and lunch at four locations across the district until at least May 1: Helmsburg Elementary School, Sprunica Elementary School, Van Buren Elementary School and Brown County High School, plus Forest Hills Apartments and the Bean Blossom Trailer Court.
A school bus will deliver meals to Forest Hills and the trailer court between approximately 11:30 and 12:30. It’ll honk the horn when it gets there.
The evening of March 23, the district changed its food program days to Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays instead of every weekday, starting on March 25. There will be no meal service this Thursday, March 26, but families can pick up enough food to get through those “off” days.
Schools will be open from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., for meals to be picked up at the front door of the school buildings to prevent social gathering. The schools will not be open for any other purpose than meal distribution.
Meals can also be delivered if families are homebound because someone in the home is showing signs of the virus.
Parents were are asked last week to register for meals, but at this point, sign-up is not needed, Hammack said.
Any site can be visited even if your children don’t all attend that school. If you want to pick up meals for several children in your neighborhood, you can do that, too, Hammack told parents.
School administrative teams will be helping with meal delivery. “Essential” school personnel were to report to work on Monday.
Hammack told parents in her chat that she’d received a lot of offers from teachers and others who wanted to help distribute meals. She said she thinks she’ll have enough people for this effort, but other volunteers are needed to help senior citizens and in other ways during this pandemic. The Facebook page Brown County COAD — Community Organizations Active in a Disaster has volunteer information.
All school staff will continue to be paid during this extended school “break.” The school board was expected to ratify that action this week.
Hammack asked community members to “give each other just a little bit of grace” as everyone tries to figure out what to do in this ever-changing situation.
“This is something that none of us have ever been through before. Every single day, we’re working to figure it out. Some decisions we will get right and some decisions we will get wrong, but what I love and treasure about this community is that we really are like family. And family doesn’t always get along, but we love each other and we’re there for each other, and I commit that to you 100 percent, and so does our entire organization,” she told parents, students and teachers on the chat.
“We’ll work through it. We’ll figure it out together.”
