Reports on numbers of virtual students and the latest COVID numbers occupied the bulk of the school board meeting Monday night.
Supt. Dr. Lisa Langford reported the district is down another 40 students on virtual. Calhoun City still has the highest number at 88 and Vardaman the lowest at only two. This week marks the date anyone participating in extra-curricular activities must return to school full-time.
Dr. Langford also said Nov. 3 is the targeted start date for the Career Center to open to students, accepting from one school at a time with smaller numbers allowing for social distancing.
In the COVID report, Director Jeff Patton said at end of day Monday, 133 people district wide were out in quarantine or isolation.
“That’s down a little but it varies constantly,” he said. “Two hours from now it could be considerably more.”
“Bruce is getting a light dose of it right now,” Patton said. “Vardaman Elementary is really light, but everyone else has a lot of quarantines.”
“Vardaman is so full, so anytime you have a positive case it forces a lot of quarantines,” Dr. Langford said.
“We had one outbreak in a third grade classroom at Calhoun City Elementary. We had a Mississippi History class of 27 that all had to be quarantined,” she said.
“We know ours is not as bad as most looking at numbers around the state,” Board President Don Hardin said.
“We’re seeing a lot of strep the last few days. Flu hasn’t hit us yet,” Dr. Langford said.
Board member Brad Logan, of Bruce, asked about the basketball season. Dr. Langford explained 25% capacity for each gym is the rule. Each school has done their own measurement on what that will be.
“Coach Ray said home players will get four tickets and visitors two at Calhoun City,” Dr. Langford said.
“Our schools are doing a phenomenal job keeping this out of our schools,” Logan said. “I’m nervous we won’t have the same control with basketball.”
“They will social distance among the groups of four passes,” Dr. Langford said.
“That will be hard to monitor,” Hardin said.
“You start spacing people out in our gyms, that’s not many people,” Logan said.
Dr. Langford said they would be checking temperatures at the door and all the usual protocols including masks will be enforced.
“I just have concerns about the inside sports,” Logan said. “I trust our administrators to do what they need to do.”
Calhoun City High School Principal Mike Ray said his school was close to a high C or even a B prior to the COVID hitting.
Ray, giving the school improvement report to the board, said they’ve made progress with their SpEd program and the data on their latest test scores showed still low proficiency but overall growth was over 40% on average.
“We just need to get more consistency now that we have our students back in school,” Ray said. “The hybrid schedule early hurt us, but with things settling in now we’re hopeful things will continue improving. We’re working hard to get to where we need to be.”
CCHS currently has 88 in 5th-12th grades doing virtual. They were well over 100 at one point.
“We hope to have everyone back second semester,” Ray said.
Other items approved by board:
•Prior year invoice from North Mississippi Educational Services for $1,200 for language/speech therapy for private school students. Invoice was not received due to the unexpected closing of schools due to COVID 19.
•Contract with ESGI which would provide an online supplemental instructional service for elementary students.
•Personnel Action – Amber Rinder as teacher assistant replacing Peggy Shields; Resignation of Cynthia Anderson as substitute teacher; Recommendation of Jennifer Griffin as substitute teacher; Resignation of Lisa Westmoreland as cafeteria worker; Recommendation of Patricia Guest as substitute cafeteria worker; Recommendation of Kountess Pierce as substitute bus driver; Resignation of Craig Baker as bus driver; Recommendation of Erin Beth Earnest for an additional route; Resignation of David Poliquin as bus driver.
•Six month extension on a 16th section contract with Lovorn Logging.