Post by Poor Richard on Aug 14, 2021 10:05:34 GMT -7
Livingston School board presents COVID mitigation strategies, virtual school option
The Livingston Enterprise reports:
"A handful of concerned parents pushed back against the Livingston School District’s layered mitigation strategy to protect students and staff from COVID-19 at the district school board meeting Tuesday evening.
The meeting presented the district’s COVID-19 safety strategy and newly formed virtual school, called Park Online Education Expedition. Board members also approved the budget for the upcoming school year.
The school district is beginning the school year with masks optional for students. Teachers and staff will be required to wear masks whenever they’re within 6 feet of a student, otherwise they can remove the masks, Superintendent Lynne Scalia explained. She added that, due to federal rules, students riding on school buses must wear masks while commuting.
Flexibility around masking is due to other mitigation strategies the school district has in place, including upgraded ventilation and air filtration systems in school buildings, high vaccination rates among school staff, vaccine availability for those 12 and older, access to rapid testing and contact tracing, according to documents detailing district mitigation strategies.
School Nurse Sue Harriman pointed out that schools cannot test students for COVID-19 without parental consent, and that the tests used are from the local health department. Both antigen tests and PCR tests are available to the schools, Harriman said.
Scalia said that she was surprised during summer education programs that some kids were willing to continue wearing masks even though they didn’t have to.
“You could see that, boy, kids are way more adaptable than we are as adults,” Scalia said. “The kids ended up being more accepting of each other at the high school level and at the third, fourth and fifth grade level.”
During the public comment following discussion of COVID-19 mitigation strategies, a handful of parents argued that masks are dangerously ineffective, that COVID-19 tests are worthless and that a lawsuit in Canada proved that the virus was a hoax.
A fact check by the Associated Press found that the allegation that a lawsuit caused the Alberta provincial government to relax virus restrictions is false.
The Canadian province north of Montana lifted restrictions because more than 70% of its residents over the age of 12 had received at least one dose of the vaccine. A misunderstanding of what happened in the court case by laypeople on social media has caused the false assumption to spread widely, the AP reported.
“(Masking is) a personal choice and we don’t allow bullying from either side of the mask issue to try to shame the other side,” said Trustee Tom Shellenberg. “That’s just bullying. And we don’t permit that.”
Park Online Education Expedition
New for the upcoming school year is the Park Online Education Expedition, an online education option separate and distinct from traditional in-person classroom learning. The district has hired a dedicated teacher for the online school and shifted Jordan Viegut from his role as principal of Washington School to director of the virtual school, documents provided during the meeting show.
POEE includes two separate learning platforms — one for kindergarten through fifth grade, called Stride, and another for sixth through 12th grade, called Apex — Sarah Dahl, technology integration specialist, said during the meeting. Dahl noted that both platforms come with their own curriculum different from the one followed in the classrooms.
Parents with students in Stride will have materials available to help their children through the courses. Devices will be available for free for any students who need them, Dahl said. Scalia said the online school is available for free for any parent with students in Park County, whether enrolled in public school or home schooled.
The virtual school day will generally be separated into two parts, Viegut explained during the meeting. The morning schedule will consist of coursework and teacher coaching. Afternoons will be available for project-based learning opportunities and in-person activities, such as extracurricular programs and athletics.
“We don’t want students to miss out on opportunities we have on-site,” Dahl said. “It could be activities, it could be athletics, it could be band class.”
She said about 28 students are registered for POEE as of Tuesday, though a final count won’t be available until after central registration.
The virtual school option provides flexibility for parents who don’t want their students in the classroom, but Dahl said switching back and forth between in-person and online instruction would be difficult for the student. The curriculum for POEE is self-paced, she explained, so a student might be slightly behind or ahead of the on-site class."
"A handful of concerned parents pushed back against the Livingston School District’s layered mitigation strategy to protect students and staff from COVID-19 at the district school board meeting Tuesday evening.
The meeting presented the district’s COVID-19 safety strategy and newly formed virtual school, called Park Online Education Expedition. Board members also approved the budget for the upcoming school year.
The school district is beginning the school year with masks optional for students. Teachers and staff will be required to wear masks whenever they’re within 6 feet of a student, otherwise they can remove the masks, Superintendent Lynne Scalia explained. She added that, due to federal rules, students riding on school buses must wear masks while commuting.
Flexibility around masking is due to other mitigation strategies the school district has in place, including upgraded ventilation and air filtration systems in school buildings, high vaccination rates among school staff, vaccine availability for those 12 and older, access to rapid testing and contact tracing, according to documents detailing district mitigation strategies.
School Nurse Sue Harriman pointed out that schools cannot test students for COVID-19 without parental consent, and that the tests used are from the local health department. Both antigen tests and PCR tests are available to the schools, Harriman said.
Scalia said that she was surprised during summer education programs that some kids were willing to continue wearing masks even though they didn’t have to.
“You could see that, boy, kids are way more adaptable than we are as adults,” Scalia said. “The kids ended up being more accepting of each other at the high school level and at the third, fourth and fifth grade level.”
During the public comment following discussion of COVID-19 mitigation strategies, a handful of parents argued that masks are dangerously ineffective, that COVID-19 tests are worthless and that a lawsuit in Canada proved that the virus was a hoax.
A fact check by the Associated Press found that the allegation that a lawsuit caused the Alberta provincial government to relax virus restrictions is false.
The Canadian province north of Montana lifted restrictions because more than 70% of its residents over the age of 12 had received at least one dose of the vaccine. A misunderstanding of what happened in the court case by laypeople on social media has caused the false assumption to spread widely, the AP reported.
“(Masking is) a personal choice and we don’t allow bullying from either side of the mask issue to try to shame the other side,” said Trustee Tom Shellenberg. “That’s just bullying. And we don’t permit that.”
Park Online Education Expedition
New for the upcoming school year is the Park Online Education Expedition, an online education option separate and distinct from traditional in-person classroom learning. The district has hired a dedicated teacher for the online school and shifted Jordan Viegut from his role as principal of Washington School to director of the virtual school, documents provided during the meeting show.
POEE includes two separate learning platforms — one for kindergarten through fifth grade, called Stride, and another for sixth through 12th grade, called Apex — Sarah Dahl, technology integration specialist, said during the meeting. Dahl noted that both platforms come with their own curriculum different from the one followed in the classrooms.
Parents with students in Stride will have materials available to help their children through the courses. Devices will be available for free for any students who need them, Dahl said. Scalia said the online school is available for free for any parent with students in Park County, whether enrolled in public school or home schooled.
The virtual school day will generally be separated into two parts, Viegut explained during the meeting. The morning schedule will consist of coursework and teacher coaching. Afternoons will be available for project-based learning opportunities and in-person activities, such as extracurricular programs and athletics.
“We don’t want students to miss out on opportunities we have on-site,” Dahl said. “It could be activities, it could be athletics, it could be band class.”
She said about 28 students are registered for POEE as of Tuesday, though a final count won’t be available until after central registration.
The virtual school option provides flexibility for parents who don’t want their students in the classroom, but Dahl said switching back and forth between in-person and online instruction would be difficult for the student. The curriculum for POEE is self-paced, she explained, so a student might be slightly behind or ahead of the on-site class."