At its special meeting Wednesday, the Pontiac Grade School District 429 Board of Education declared it will make an official decision on Monday regarding the return to school next month.
Before that, there will be some work to be done by Superintendent Brian Dukes the and the district's administrators.
"We're all in a difficult spot, it would be great if there was a gold standard out there, a road map that we could walk down and we would know exactly how to handle this situation," Board Member Mark Donovan said. "No matter what we vote on, ultimately we aren't going to make everybody happy. There's going to be flaws, there's going to be shortcomings.
"All we can really do … is follow the rules, follow the regulations and try to be as productive and safe as possible. … We just have to do what's right, what's safe and what's most productive for the kids."
Parents in the district were offered a chance to provide an opinion on the three options that were presented by the Illinois State Board of Education through the district. These were having all-day in-person learning at the schools, having in-person schooling in the morning and remote learning in the afternoon or having remote learning all day.
The consensus of the board members was to eliminate the middle option and focus on either all in-school or remote. Board Member Tracey Bromley said that, in numbers obtained from Dukes, that only 90 of the 916 respondents favored the half-day option (No. 2).
In public comments, PEA President Michelle Barnett pointed out that 85 of the 119 respondents in the union are not comfortable returning to school because of the unknown of what the school day would look like with the three options. She said her organization favors changes, which were discussed later in the meeting by the board.
One of the issues was dismissal time. Donovan agreed with the PEA in maybe having a school day of 8 a.m. to 1 p.m., at least in the short term. He also said that the focus should be on core-instruction and li iting interaction as much as possible, including simplifying things and the possibility of offering after-school labs.
Bromley said she is concerned about keeping kids after school and how that can affect teacher's in planning. She added she's not sure of the benefit from a health standpoint in early dismissal.
Board President Stacey Shrewsbury indicated that the early dismissal brings back the third option, which is what the group is trying to eliminate. She said that the two options — all-day in-school or remote — are the focus and that administration and the teachers need to work out the planning for the school day.
Donovan said he wants to see a draft of a schedule so he can make an informed decision and offered up early dismissal for the first few weeks. Bromley said she's good with an early dismissal until Labor Day.
The question was then when would early dismissal be. The belief is that it would be between 2 and 2:30 and the shortened day will last the first three weeks and two days — to Sept. 4. Labor Day is Sept. 7 and the regular school day would begin Sept. 8.
Donovan suggested deferring to Dukes for logistics, which includes busing, so that Dukes and the principals can work out a schedule.
Ehrgott says that reevaluation is needed after things get going, and Shrewsbury said that a decision on the school day needs to be made by Aug. 31 for the post-Labor Day time change. Also, there would still be the remote option continuance.
The board is asking administrators to prepare plans based on the two options and Dukes to provide master skeleton schedule before making decision on the best dismissal time for a shortened day for a trial amount of time (to Labor Day). Dukes said that schedule will be ready for perusal before the Monday special meeting, which is to take place at 7 p.m.
Dukes also pointed out that there is plenty of hand sanitizer in all of the buildings and that there are sanitizers and thermometers in each classroom. Also, the buses will be cleaned after each route and that there will be a deep cleaning of the schools every day.
"This is new territory for all of us," Shrewsbury said. "We'll not have an option that makes everybody happy but we will do our best."
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Back-to-school plans discussed - Pontiac Daily Leader
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