Chamois R-1 sets dates for summer school

By Theresa Brandt, Staff Writer
Posted 5/20/20

The Chamois R-1 school board at last Wednesday’s monthly meeting made tentative plans for a summer school program and set dates for events for the rest of the year amid the uncertainty of the …

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Chamois R-1 sets dates for summer school

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The Chamois R-1 school board at last Wednesday’s monthly meeting made tentative plans for a summer school program and set dates for events for the rest of the year amid the uncertainty of the COVID-19 pandemic. Summer school is tentatively scheduled for June 15 through June 26.  Superintendent Lyle Best and his staff have been sorting through the guidelines provided by the Center for Disease Control (CDC), the school’s insurance group and from the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) for reopening schools and getting kids back in the classroom. The school district has also asked for guidance from the Osage County Department of Health.

“Everyone has different feelings on how much and how cautious we need to be or whether we’re overreacting,” Best explained. “As a school we are kinda in the middle of that trying to figure out how to make people feel more comfortable and that we are taking this seriously but still wanting to make this an enjoyable experience.”

Students eligible for summer school are those that were in kindergarten through sixth grade for the 2019-20 school year. Class size will be limited to 10 students per classroom with a maximum of 40 students. If there are more than 40 students enrolled in summer school, Chamois will have an alternate day or week schedule to keep the total number of people in the school at any one time low.

School will be a little different for the students as social distancing rules will be observed as much as possible. Students that are transported by bus will be limited one to a seat and in every other row. There will be assigned seats and bus drivers will wear masks and clean the bus seats after the routes.

Breakfast and lunch will be served. Breakfast will be something that students grab and take to the classrooms. Lunch will either be served in multiple shifts with the kids social distancing at the tables, or the students may be taking their meals back to the classrooms to eat.

“I think that would be a better social environment,” Best said. “The students would still be able to talk and it may make them (the students) feel more comfortable.”

The goal would be to eliminate sharing of food or utensils, and limit access to the coolers.

Students would need to have reusable water bottles to drink from as they would not be allowed to directly drink from water fountains.

Large playground equipment would remain off limits to the students. Each class would be assigned a place outdoors to play and assigned smaller playground equipment (balls, jump ropes) that would not be shared with other classes and would be cleaned after each recess.

“It’s hard to maintain social distancing for recess so we would have to come up with some ideas,” Best said. “If kids are playing kickball, they don’t necessarily have a lot of interaction.”

Classrooms would be limited to 10 students each with desks spaced six foot apart. Students will not share supplies, and will minimize the number of things that go back and forth from school to home.  Restrooms would be limited to two students at once, and proper hand-washing will be emphasized.

Visitors will be limited and students and staff exhibiting symptoms of COVID-19 will be sent home.

Best and his staff are aware that things could change with the recommendations and procedures at any time.

“The money is going to be there to pay people to work,” Best said. “I think we can follow the guidelines and be sensible about what we are doing. Unless there is an order that says you can’t have kids in the school, I think we should have summer school.”

Recent, informal surveys of the families in the school district have Best estimating that there will be between 25 and 35 students interested in enrolling in summer school.

“Are we definitely doing this, even if we only have 10 kids?” Board President Steve Cramer said.

“I would say yes, we go ahead and do it,” Best said.

The school district is considering having a second summer school session later to help students transition into a new school year. This later session would include incoming kindergarten students.

Funding for these two summer school sessions would largely come from federal stimulus funds.

Dates for end-of-year events have been tentatively rescheduled although some of the details are still up in the air, and are all subject to change.

Preschool graduation is scheduled for 10 a.m. June 20. Elementary Principal Dee Luker is hoping that the weather cooperates, and the ceremony can be held outside.

Prom is rescheduled for 6 p.m. June 13, with the location yet to be decided.

High school graduation has been rescheduled for 11 a.m. June 20, in the gymnasium, if possible.

Grades were due to the office by Friday, May 15.

The state school board is allowing school districts to request waivers to begin their school years earlier than Aug. 24, which was the state mandated as the starting date for public schools in Missouri.

Best would like to keep the school calendar in place that was recently approved by the board.

“The administrators and staff put a lot of work into the calendar that has been approved,” Best said. “For us, the focus should be on what school might look like after we come back as opposed to worrying about the date we start.”

As of right now the first day of the 2020-21 school year will be Aug. 24.

In other business, board members approved asphalt repair and resurfacing in the amount of $23,489.72 with Higgins Asphalt Paving Company out of Tipton.

The bid covers cleaning, filling cracks and applying filler to the entire parking lot. Higgins Asphalt Paving Company will remove and replace severely damaged areas of the parking lot with four inches of asphalt, and will add a new parking area of about 54 feet by 22 feet near the main high school building.

*  Recently, the state budget has been approved and there were no cuts made to the foundation formula for any public schools in the state.

“There were cuts to other areas of school funding but the big one is the foundation formula funding, and it was fully funded,” Best said. “Federal money is going to be consistent. Sales tax is where we may see the numbers go down. Everyone is anticipating being hard hit this year and next.”

Best noted that the Chamois school district may see some reductions in state money due to lower enrollment.

“Local tax revenue is down about four to five percent,” Best said. “Our collection rate is down to around 92 to 93 percent versus the 98 percent collection rate we have seen in years past.”

Best wanted the board to anticipate these slightly lower numbers so that adjustments could be made to the budget for the next fiscal year, but he believes that the school is going forward in a strong financial position.

*  Applications for federal stimulus funds for public school districts become available this week and Chamois R-1 has applied for a share of those funds. Preliminary allocations total $45,000, with funds use limited to primarily help with the learning gap that was creating the last quarter of this school year.

“We’ve put together some ideas,” Best said. “But I think our focus will be to help fund the summer school program for this year and possibly next year, after school programs and providing extra learning opportunities for students starting school this next year. We want to try to help make up and push our kids forward for what they lost this last year. That’s going to be a ongoing process but we can identify some ways to do that.”

Seventy-five percent of the funds from the federal stimulus package will be distributed at one time. Quarterly reports will be required to identify the places where the school district is using the money.

Overall, Best believes that the school is in a very solid financial position as of right now.

“Even though there has been a reduction of revenue this year we’ve also seen a big reduction in year-to-date expenditures,” Best pointed out.

* The board approved classifying the spare school bus damaged in the recent hail storm as surplus property, as it was a total loss to the insurance company. The school will be soliciting bids for the bus.

* Bills were approved in the amount of $45,778.98.

* The current financial statement showed the following ending balances as of April:  General Fund ($1,370,203), Special Fund ($121,035) and the Capital Project Fund ($41,364).

REPORTS

Luker said she has been thrilled with the delivery service that has been organized by High School Principal Jeremy McKague.

“He has done a great job, and to all of those who have been involved, it has been a great help to the elementary students,” Luker said.

* Luker noted that 90% of the homework packets have been completed by the students.

“We are very pleased with that, and believe it is a great testament to the parents, guardians, siblings and anyone who has been helping students with their homework,” Luker said. “It has been great, and we appreciate it.”

* Awards day recipients will be posted on the school’s website. Awards have been ordered, but Luker noted she is not sure when they will arrive.

McKague in his report reiterated what Luker said.

“Actually, it has all gone better that we had expected,” McKague said, referring to distance learning in the last quarter. “The staff was great, and we had plenty of volunteers.”

McKague noted that all of the homework would be graded, but overall, students will get points for showing an effort. The students who did not get all of their work turned in will have the opportunity to complete a packet of homework at the beginning of next year to earn their credits back so they do not have to repeat a class.

Best commented on how well things have been running amid the uncertainty of the COVID-19 pandemic in his report to the board.

“I’m really thankful for the staff and on how they overall conducted themselves and still tried to provide services for students,” Best said. “We don’t pretend everything went smoothly because that would be too much to ask. But from everything I saw the intention was always in the right place from the staff trying to make the best of the situation.”

Best noted that staff was evaluating how things had gone over the past several months so that if the situation ever happened again, things would run as smoothly as possible.

“I think that people, by all accounts, pulled together and tried to do the best they could and that is really good to see,” Best said.

* Best noted that school board elections were coming up June 2.

* There are two big bills in the state legislature that directly affect education. Areas of concern include a mandatory reading program, home school students being allowed to participate in Missouri State High School Activities Association (MSHSAA) athletic programs, mandatory gifted programs, limits on property assessment growth and restrictions of public funding that go to political purposes, which would restrict the district from promoting bond issues.

* All of the estimates have been submitted for the damage due to the recent hailstorm.  Best is hoping that repairs will begin later this month.

* The gym floor has already had its annual re-coating so that if students are able to use that area it would be available.