In two weeks, students and teachers will be back in the classroom, with a few key changes to policy since last year.

Students will not be able to opt-in to all-remote classes online; that was an option last school year but not this time. All students will be instructed in person unless they have to go into quarantine or the school goes to “red” level, when other arrangements will be made for them to get assignments.

Students and staff will be encouraged — not required — to wear masks if they are not vaccinated. However, all students riding buses will be required to wear masks on the bus due to a federal mandate covering public transportation.

If students or staff are identified as close contacts of a person who has tested positive for COVID-19, they will not have go into quarantine if they can show proof of vaccination.

The school board approved changes to the return-to-school plan on July 15. At that meeting, the board heard various concerns from parents, including about how their child will get their assignments if they are quarantined and if parents will be allowed to go inside school buildings this year.

Interim Superintendent Jim Halik and the administrative team amended the plan from last school year to fit current state and federal guidance, including changing the facial covering requirement to a recommendation.

On the mask requirement on buses, “If we do not enforce that, we could lose federal funding,” Halik said.

“You do not want to jeopardize federal funding, so we will enforce mask wearing on the bus.”

The requirement could change in September when the federal mandate for masks on public transportation, like airplanes and buses, is set to expire.

Quarantines

Fully vaccinated and asymptomatic students or staff will no longer have to quarantine if they are identified as a close contact to someone who tested positive for COVID-19 if they can provide proof of vaccination.

“We can’t ask for people for proof of vaccination (in general); however, if someone is asymptomatic or needs to be quarantined and they provide they have, either an adult or child, been fully vaccinated, they would not have to comply with the quarantine rule,” Halik said.

“If they choose not to provide proof at their own will, then they would have to remain quarantine for the safety, health and welfare of those around them.”

“If you’re quarantined, it would be the same as if you were absent for any other reason from school, like the cold, flu,” Halik said.

No additional sick days will be provided for staff this year if they have to be quarantined. If they have to quarantine, “they use their own personal days or leave days. Any days beyond that would be unpaid days,” Halik explained.

Last school year, additional funding was provided to give staff additional paid leave days if they had to be quarantined due to COVID-19 exposure or testing positive. That funding does not exist this year, Halik said.

The district will continue to operate under three color-coded response levels: Green, yellow or red. The levels are determined by the percentage of a building population absent related to active exposure cases, including positive cases, those with symptoms or who were identified as a close contact; and the percentage of a building population with symptoms of COVID-19.

Remote learning will be put into effect if the school goes on the yellow plan, which would put half of the students in school for half the week and the other half of the students online. This is what happened at several schools last school year.

If 16 percent or more of students are reporting symptoms, or when 20 percent or more of a building population is absent due to active exposure cases, then the red level plan will be put into place. All students will be on remote learning until the community spread decreases in a building. Internet access locations will be available under the red plan.

If students are put on remote learning, assignments will be on paper for students in kindergarten to fourth grade, with other students working online.

Other measures

Social distancing will continue to be used in classrooms as much as possible, and students congregating in areas like the parking lots will be discouraged. Assigned seating will be implemented, including on buses and in the cafeteria, like last school year.

Visitors to school buildings will continue be screened for COVID-19. Water fountains will be closed and students will be allowed to bring water bottles from home.

Parent questions

Four parents attended the meeting last week to ask questions.

One father asked if a quarantine would be considered an unexcused absence. Brown County High School Principal Matt Stark said that a student will be listed as absent because of quarantine since positive cases and exposures will still be tracked.

“It does not go against them from that standpoint, because they are being quarantined because of a health risk,” Stark said about the absence.

Students who are quarantined will be able to log onto Canvas to get assignments at the high school and middle school level, like if they were out sick for another reason. At the elementary level, students usually receive paper packets of work, but Stark encouraged parents to call their building principals to verify how a student will get homework while in quarantine.

The quarantine period will remain at 14 days.

Parents also asked about if a student would be quarantined if they were sick, but not due to COVID-19, or if they had a symptom during the school day, like a cough or headache.

“If they go to the nurse and say, ‘I have a headache.’ They say, ‘Oh, that’s a symptom; you need to go home.’ Is that quarantine?” parent Erika Bryenton asked.

School board member Amy Oliver said that would depend on what school corporation nurse Holly Gordon and the building nurse decide. “They are following the national guidance. That is not something we determine. We are following the CDC guidelines as to what they tell us we need to do,” Oliver said.

One father said his daughter missed almost eight weeks of school last school year because she was a close contact, but never once tested positive for COVID-19.

“One of my employees, her daughter coughs all the time. She gets something in her throat. She is a first-grader, and she was sent home repeatedly, being told to quarantine because she coughs year-round,” Bryenton said.

Board President Carol Bowden said in this instance, a parent should speak with the principal. “Say, ‘Hey, what’s going on? Please explain this to me.’ You have to go up the chain of command,” she said.

Because there will be no virtual option for school this school year, there will not be a dedicated virtual teacher for a grade or building. If an entire classroom is quarantined or a school moves to yellow or red level on the plan, then those teachers will be instructing their classes virtually, but other than that, students will be expected to be in class or doing assignments from home if quarantined.

Bryenton asked if perfect attendance awards would be given this year, since some students would miss out on that award if they are put in a quarantine that was out of their control.

Stark said attendance rules from last school year will be in place this year, including no perfect attendance awards.

A parent asked if students would be sprayed with hand sanitizer when they arrive at school, like last year. The approved plan says that hand sanitizer stations will be available and custodians will be sanitizing classrooms more often.

A mother asked if parents would be allowed to be in the building this year.

“I said you should go ahead and continue,” Halik said.

“That’s like setting a precedent that parents will be allowed to come back for back-to-school events. People were at ballparks all summer, people were at the mall, they are going to Holiday World, and we don’t have any guidance about not allowing it, so that is something that will have to be discussed with the new superintendent.”

The new superintendent will be announced this week at a special meeting on July 22.

In this week’s paper, the schools’ administrative office reported that elementary open houses will take place Monday, Aug. 2, and middle and high school open houses will take place after school on Wednesday, Aug. 4. (See pages A6-7 for more information.)

The first day of school is Wednesday, Aug. 4.

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More back-to-school information from Brown County Schools is available here.

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