ELY – Ely School District classes were suspended Wednesday in response to the coronavirus sweeping the state, and the district will remain closed until at least Monday, March 30, in accordance with instructions from Gov. Tim Walz and Education Commissioner Mary Cathryn Ricker.
ISD 696 school board members held an emergency meeting Monday night to review and approve a school closure plan and began preliminary discussions about a potential off-campus teaching scenario that could be mandated for the rest of the 2019-2020 school year and beyond.
A March 15 letter to district families and staff indicated that during the school closure period for students next week, Ely school staff will report to duty and join school districts and charter schools across the state to create plans to equitably deliver distance learning to students should the need arise to close schools for a longer period of time due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
First and foremost, school board members considered steps to be taken during the temporary closure.
“All this happened sooner than we had hoped, but we were somewhat expecting something like this to happen in short order,” Superintendent Erik Erie said.
Erie said the closure plan mirrors other plans from other districts.
“We have addressed all of the areas in the governor’s executive order,” he said.
Principal Megan Anderson likened the closure plan to an “extended spring break” and said, “There are no educational expectations, at this point, to come from our teachers or the district. This is just planning for potential long-term closure beginning on (March) 30th.”
All long-term, distance-learning plans developed next week will be communicated to all district families via email and posted on the district’s website. A survey is being conducted to gauge availability of internet access and internet-capable devices for students.
According to the plan, the district may provide devices to students who need them, and alternate methods of distance learning may also be incorporated.
“The other thing that is important is, distance learning does not mean E-learning,” Erie added. “These are two different types of terms. Distance learning in the high school could look much different than in elementary.”
Other facets of the school closure plan stated that mental health services may be available for students during the closure period. No special education or other instructional services are required during the closure period.
School meals for Wednesday were sent home with students on Tuesday. And starting Monday, March 23, students will be offered bagged breakfast and lunch to be picked up at the school or at another location. Breakfast and lunch will be provided on regularly scheduled school days.
“We could use school bus drivers to help deliver lunches,” Erie said.
School-aged daycare for school employees, emergency workers, and essential personnel (health care workers, law enforcement personnel, mental health workers, etc.), will be provided by school staff during the closure period, as required by Walz’s declaration.
School board member James Pointer inquired as to the activities of the students in child care next week.
“What will they be doing in that school-day time frame?” he asked.
Principal Anne Oelke said that staff had yet to address those details.
“With our surveys we are still determining how many kids we need to plan for and how much staff we need,” she said. “These kids will be in different locations around the school. We are still planning all of that.”
Pointer persisted in his quest for more details. When fellow school board member Heidi Mann suggested to Pointer that he allow the staff more time to work out details, Pointer responded, “They had all day Sunday.”
Erie quickly pushed on with other facets of the closure plan. The state high school athletics organization cancelled all sports tournaments.
“And no (spring sports) practices, scrimmages or games are allowed until further notice,” Anderson said. “We’ll just have to wait and see. Hopefully things will be better in April and they can get going.”
The senior class trip to Washington, D.C., is postponed at this point.
“We have a back-up date in May that we are looking at, but it is really hard to know right now whether we go or not,” Anderson added.
Ely Community Education classes are all closed until further notice.
“This includes pickle ball,” Erie said. “That is a very active and fairly large group and they hope it can get up and running as soon as possible.”
Erie repeated that all staff members are required to be on campus during the closure period next week.
“In the governor’s executive order, he wants to make sure that employees are not harmed by this school closure, so we will honor that and find a way to make that work. We value their input on that.”
School Board member Rochelle Sjoberg asked about “ramping up” additional janitorial and extra duties to disinfect the school facilities.
“We are looking at that as part of our planning process,” Erie said. “One of the things is that they are represented by unions, so if we have them work outside of their classification, we have to know what that means.”
If an employee does not wish to be in school during the closure, according to Erie, they would be able to use accrued leave time. He noted that some district employees are “medically vulnerable” and may not be required to be in school.
“This is an unprecedented and fluid situation and we have to be ready for changes,” Erie said.