By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post
Hays USD 489 Superintendent Ron Wilson took time at this week's school board meeting to reflect on how the district has changed its COVID-19 plan since reopening a month ago.
"We do the best we can until we know better, and then when we know better, we do better," Wilson said, "and that is what we hope to accomplish with our plan."
Wilson said Monday he still feels very strongly keeping children onsite is the best means of learning.
"We also feel in a sense that it is probably the safest thing, as we have so many health and safety measures inside our schools and protocols that I think it has become a very safe place," he said.
Buildings have had to be shut down for short periods of time because of staffing issues. The district has also had classrooms moved to remote learning for short periods of time.
Other classes have been placed in modified quarantine. However, Wilson said he thought that had been successful because it kept children in classrooms.
"We have understood the need to be flexible," he said. "What works for one situation doesn't always work for the same situation the next time. We are hoping that our parents and families of the district appreciate that we are trying to be flexible and not just a one-size-fits-all approach."
Wilson said the district is going to have to deal with the virus for the rest of the school year and is going to have to continue to examine its plan.
"I think some things that we have learned this year that have been very valuable is that remote learning has worked for short periods of time for situations where we needed classrooms or students to go remote," he said. "It is not as good as onsite learning, but it is serving us well."
The district has done further work on developing hybrid learning models, but has not implemented the models at any of the district schools.
The percent positive among students remains low. However, staff and students have had to quarantine because they have been in close contact with someone who has COVID-19. The district had 100 quarantines as of Monday.
The district has spent additional money this year because of COVID. Federal CARES funding and state-allocated SPARK funding has helped cover those costs.
"We have also identified that our facilities also lack adequate space, as we are not able to social distance real well in most of our facilities," Wilson said, "and also a lack of up-to-date HVAC systems in all our buildings."
Wilson said after a month, the district has concluded it is difficult to determine what phase the district in. The district has moved away from phases instead identifying a school or classroom as either in onsite, hybrid or remote.
Shanna Dinkel, assistant superintendent, said, "What we found was that every school is not in the same learning environment. We can't assess the district as a whole.
"I think going into this we felt that would could only go into a phase if there was a level of community risk, but we have found that we have to look at some building numbers and make some decisions as to the best learning environment for that classroom or that building."
She said the district wants to keep staff and students as safe as possible with the least possible disruption to families and other students in a building.
The district has a trained contact tracer on staff. It has also implemented daily cleaning procedures.
Dinkel said it is important for the district to know when a child is being tested, so it can begin contact tracing immediately.
Wilson said it has been critical to maintain the confidentiality of students and staff as the district contact traces.
"If you were a close contact, if your student was a close contact, you will be notified," he said.
Wilson said PPE has been adequate and temperature checks and staff check-ins have been going well.
For children with individual education plans, those plans have been modified to include contingencies in case students need to move to remote or hybrid learning.
"This has not been easy," Wilson said. "I don't want to even understate it. Every day has been a challenge. Every day you are kind of on egg shells, thinking it could break on us at any time.
"But we have so many great people in this district, who do some really outstanding work."
Board member Craig Pallister asked Wilson through his discussions with Ellis County health officials if it had become clear why Ellis County's COVID-19 positive rate was one of the highest in the state.
Wilson said it has to do with the density of the population in Ellis County compared to surrounding counties as well as the infection among college students.
"This is not an 8 to 3 virus," Wilson said, "meaning we only have to protect ourselves 8 to 3 and do all the health protocols. I think it sometimes is what happens after school gets out."
He said families need to continue to avoid large gatherings, to wear masks outside of school and keep kids at home when they are sick.
"It is working, but these numbers have to go down at some point or I don't know if it will be sustainable," he said.
Wilson said the administration has floated the idea of going remote after breaks because the district is worried about people traveling during breaks and bringing COVID back home.