Fatima R-3 school board still addressing COVID-19 and masking concerns

By Edward Gehlert, Staff Writer
Posted 10/28/21

Fatima school board members at last Wednesday’s meeting heard more issues concerning the district’s mask policy and COVID-19 from community members.

“It seems like the county …

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Fatima R-3 school board still addressing COVID-19 and masking concerns

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Fatima school board members at last Wednesday’s meeting heard more issues concerning the district’s mask policy and COVID-19 from community members.

“It seems like the county as well as the school board is concerned about the liability aspect of what not wearing a mask means in school,” Mike Kliethermes said. “Has the thought crossed your mind of what the detriment of wearing a mask would be?”

“It’s been discussed,” said Superintendent Chuck Woody.

Kliethermes said that activities like lunch, getting a drink of water, and going to recess have kids taking off their masks and most likely putting them in their pockets and then putting the masks back on when they come back to class.

“Now, I have a dirty mask on my face,” Kliethermes said. “All day long, just sitting there. The CDC says every time you touch it before you put it on, wash your hands. I guarantee you kids aren’t doing that in school. We know they’re not doing it in school. So what they’re doing is taking their chicken tender fingers, or their hotdogs and ketchup and putting that stuff on their mask. That’s not good for anybody. As far as quarantine goes, are there any numbers that have been released as far as the number of kids that have come down with COVID?”

“It’s a low percentage,” Woody replied.

“Is it lower than the actual county contraction rate?” Kliethermes asked. “Or is it higher? Or is it about the same? If it’s anywhere the same you’re not doing any good. It’s a useless policy at that point.”

“Are you under the impression that we’re quarantining?” asked board member Jeff Winkelman.

“The school board policy is doing it. The county is doing it…” said Kliethermes.

Several board members spoke at the same time, all indicating no.

“Quarantine is not done by the school,” said board VP Keith Huhn. “Quarantining is done by the county. We do not have the authority, nor do we want the authority, to quarantine students.”

“And we made that clear that we don’t want to do that. That is their job,” board member Suzanne Massman added.

“That being said it makes no sense,” said Kliethermes. “The whole policy makes no sense. If I was to come in here right now and had COVID-19 and didn’t know it and I left the building and messaged tomorrow and said I have COVID you all have to quarantine. Everybody has to quarantine because the county says so. Now let’s say this is the seventh-grade class. If I come here and I’m not tested and we leave, no one has to quarantine. If I get tested right before I come in this meeting and I test positive, even if I wear a mask it doesn’t matter, you all have to quarantine, because the masks have intelligence. They know when you’re sick. That’s what’s going on with masks. That’s the actual ludicrous (nature) of the situation.”

Kliethermes added that he works in a large hospital in the central Missouri area and that over the summer there were more ventilators used for illnesses other than COVID.

“We had a number of COVID cases, in the forty to fifty range,” said Kliethermes. “We were completely out of ventilators at the time. I went to my bosses and asked how many (ventilators) were actually on COVID patients and they said five. We have 30 other ventilators in use on non-COVID patients, because of these other illnesses. We just delayed everything. We’re not actually preventing anything, we’re simply delaying it. The more we wear masks, the more we do all this social distance, it’s just making it worse.

“The other thing I’d like to point out is there’s a reason the first thing the Taliban did was to make women cover their face,” Kliethermes continued. “It was to remove their identity. I know people, I won’t say who, who love wearing masks because they are very introverted. They don’t like showing their face, they don’t like being around others. They like it when they can hide. We know the best way to learn is through facial recognition and things of that nature. Communication, the majority of it, anywhere from 50 to 90 percent is non-verbal, facial expressions and things of that nature. Masks are for Halloween. We didn’t want them to wear it all the time. It removes their identity, it slows their growth and development. I’m assuming at some point the mask policy is going to come back. I just want people to keep in mind there’s more danger in wearing a bacterial, mold-filled mask on their face.”

Woody noted that Fatima school nurse Lynn Reasons tested 54 staff members and students on Oct. 19 for COVID-19.

“We currently have four junior high and high school students positive and two staff,” said Woody. “Now five of those six were from yesterday alone.”

Woody also informed the board there were 14 close contacts from those cases and 11 are choosing to quarantine because they live with a positive student and can’t isolate. 

Woody told the board that the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education’s (DESE) division of health and social services does not recognize the COVID-19 antibody test. 

Massman said she had talked to the county health department last month and that she was told the antibody test would substitute for vaccination for 90 days, and that the same information was still on the county health department’s website as of Oct. 20.

Woody advised the board that the information was updated on Oct. 19 on the CDC website.

In other business, the board addressed the concern brought up last month by the Fatima Teachers’ Association on the order of how business is conducted. The teachers association had asked the board if they could conduct their closed sessions at the end of the meeting instead of at the start.

“There’s some things kind of necessary to discuss at the beginning in closed, but I can also see their point of wanting a time where they can come in and participate in the open session without having to wait for who knows how long,” Huhn said. “ I think it’s a good idea, too. I think we owe the teachers that. I do agree with (board president) Doug (Luebbering) that there is some business we need to discuss before we go into open session. What we’re going to do, we are not going to approve it at this time because we are going to need to look into what Missouri board policy allows us to do. Our plan is to do whatever business we need to take care of when the public is here.”

Huhn added that they will see if they can go into closed session for a maximum of 30 minutes and then open it to a public meeting, going back into closed session after the regular meeting is completed, if necessary.

“If we’re done early, great,” he said. “If it’s 30 minutes we’re gonna stop, go into open session, do our open session agenda, and then go back into closed session. Sometimes it will be necessary.” 

* Board members voted to accept the resignation of Sophie Pardalos upon the acceptance of a certified replacement and the requirement that Pardalos pays the $3,000 penalty for breaking her contract.

* The board approved the hiring of coaches TJ Keilholz, Tyler Plassmeyer, and Steve Schnieders for baseball, with Schnieders being a volunteer assistant, Jamie Pearson and Hunter Anderson for cheerleading, and Ray Cardwell was hired as a full-time substitute teacher.

* Of 115 staff surveys sent out, 79 responses have been returned.

* Bus routes were approved, and snow routes will be the same as last year.

* A Holiday Open House will be held this year and the date will be announced.

* A grant was submitted for getting Vape Detectors. 

* Red ribbon week was observed Oct. 25-27.

* The barnwarming dance was held on Oct. 22.

* Bills were approved for $376,454.73.

* The next meeting is scheduled for Nov. 17 at 7 p.m.

REPORTS

Woody informed board members that the December meeting will be held on Dec. 8.

* Woody also mentioned he had concerns about the staff.

“I’m worried about our staff a little bit,” said Woody. “Everybody has a lot on their shoulders right now. I can see it on their faces. I’m worried about them. I know a district close to here has given extended time off coming up at the holiday. Is that something you’d want to consider? Extending a little bit of a break to let our staff catch their breath?”

Woody told the board they had enough days on the calendar to allow the extra time.

The board agreed to extend the Thanksgiving holiday an additional two days.

* The Missouri School Improvement Program (MSIP) is continuing to progress, but more work is needed.

“We have more stuff planned throughout the year that we may tweak as necessary, but we are getting started on it,” Woody said. “There is work in front of everybody. Not fun work, but hoops we have to jump through.”

High School Principal Sharyl Kelsch reported the creation of a high school bully incident reporting form that has been shared with all students.

“It’s up on their links drive on their Chrome Books,” she said. “It’s a form students can fill out to report anything that they see that’s concerning at the high school, whether it’s bullying, vaping, drugs, weapons … anything like that. They can put their Kliethermes on it if they want; if not they can send it anonymously. It comes to (Assistant Principal) Matt (Verslues), me, and the district counselor. We’ve had four come through already since we posted it. A couple were legitimate.”

* Kelsch also informed the board that they are working with Courage2ReportMO. 

The Missouri School Violence Hotline (SVH) began in October 2001. In 2019, through the Missouri School Safety Initiative, the reporting mechanism moved to the Missouri Information Analysis Center for 24/7 operation and was Kliethermesd Courage2ReportMO. The goal is to make schools safer by helping school districts and law enforcement learn about school violence as soon as possible. Courage2ReportMO takes confidential reports involving any public or private school in Missouri with students in pre-kindergarten through 12th grade.

“It goes through law enforcement but is then filtered back to us,” said Kelsch. “Again it’s an anonymous one. You can communicate with that one, text back and forth, whereas (with) my form they just send it to us and we investigate it. We are trying to give students safe options to report things. I know it’s difficult to just walk into the high school office and say ‘hey this is what’s happening to me or I just saw this.’ It’s very easy for them to sit down and fill out this form and shoot it off to us.”

* Kelsch told the board administrators are continuing to push the teacher compliments program. She said it is a good way to recognize students who go above and beyond expectations.

* Kelsch is continuing to hold monthly departmental meetings and principal advisory meetings.

“I’m just really trying to increase communication options for teachers so they can have a setting to voice concerns or talk about things,” said Kelsch. “My goal was to get some of that information before surveys at the end of the year. A survey at the end of the year just felt like an autopsy. I can’t change anything with that; I can just hear what went wrong. My goal was to try to do something to get on top of that sooner so we could address concerns and not let them fester.”

Kelsch reported current enrollment is 507 students.

Elementary School Principal Mellissa Wright informed the board that the parent-teachers conference will be held on Oct. 28 from 1-7 p.m. 

* Wright noted that the first quarter assembly will be virtual again this year and that Halloween parties will take place on Oct. 27 with a costume parade in the school.

* Current enrollment was reported at 258 students with a rate of attendance of 97.2%.

Curriculum Coordinator Janah Massman announced that that staff held their first Professional Development day, adding that Parents as teachers is up and running as well.

“We’re doing our group meetings,” she said. “Title I is up and running. All’s good.”

Special Education Director Kristie Scrivner was in training for CTI and not present.

* Librarian Tina Paschal will talk about Advanced Reading (AR) points with students during library time.