Dallas looking to start with all students in school, with restrictions

DALLAS TWP. — Stressing things can change, Dallas School District Operations Manager Jason Rushmer told the School Board and anyone viewing the monthly meeting online Monday that schools will re-open Aug. 26 with an “in-person restricted” plan, meaning all students will be on campus “with significant modifications.”

The exact modifications are still being finalized, Rushmer said, but thanks to Gov. Tom Wolf’s order on face masks, students and teachers will be wearing them whenever a distance of 6 feet between people can’t be maintained, which will be in most classrooms. Rushmer noted the state does not allow schools built with excess space for students, so most classrooms can’t hold 24 students while maintaining that distance.

Gym seating for meals

Plans are underway to use gyms for added seating during meals, which should allow students to keep distance when they remove masks to eat or drink, but students won’t be allowed to sit close together at tables and talk to friends.

Hallways will likely be one-way, and efforts such as having teachers, rather than students, switch rooms will be taken to keep students with the same group throughout the day.

The district is investing in sanitizing equipment, including electrostatic sanitizers, which Superintendent Tom Duffy said look like a backpack and allow sanitizing large areas quickly. Traditional sanitizer will also be available for student use.

Health screenings have already been implemented for the return of athletics, with students filling out forms at home before returning to campus this month. Questions include whether a student has been in close contact with anyone who had COVID-19 or has any of the symptoms.

Transportation plans

Transportation is similarly being worked out, with plans to use electrostatic sanitizers on the vehicles, to keep family members together as much as possible, to have assigned seating and not allow children to move around once seated, and mandatory mask wearing.

Rushmer noted a survey of families suggested there will be fewer children taking the bus as more parents said they will arrange for private transportation. But he also noted the survey is already dated and plans are underway to conduct a new one.

Bus pick-up and drop-off times may be more staggered, and Duffy said the district is looking for parent volunteers to help keep younger students masked and seated. He also said the option of contracting more vehicles is under consideration.

Face shields

Regarding masks, the district is trying out face shields as an option because they would travel with the student, Duffy said. He added that the mask mandated will be enforced through the district’s existing disciplinary procedures.

Rushmer said an important part of district preparation amid the pandemic is to be prepared to quickly “pivot” among one of four modes of learning: Remote-only with all schools closed, hybrid with about half the students on campus at a time to make social distancing easier, the in-person restricted method currently chosen, and in-person with fewer restrictions.

Duffy said if a hybrid plan is used it would be more controlled than the system put together at the last minute in March when schools were ordered closed. District teachers would issue assignments and work with students remotely on the same lessons students would be getting in class each day.

He noted that while the district has a cyber school program, that is run through third party companies with recorded lessons that don’t always involve district teachers, though they are aligned with district curriculum.

Contract approvals

In a related move, the board approved a contract with GoGuardian for a variety of online learning services, including the ability to monitor and filter student web activity, with notifications sent to principals, the district technology department and parents. The cost is $17,835.

The board also approved an agreement with transportation provider G. Davis Inc. regarding payments for the stretch of last school year when no students were transported due to state-ordered school closure beginning March 16 and lasting through the school year. The state passed a law requiring districts to pay contractors, but allowed the two sides to negotiate terms for changes due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The “interim agreement” approved Monday hinges on how the federal Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) works out for G. Davis. Technically, the program loaned money to G. Davis to keep employees on the payroll, though the loan will be forgiven if G.Davis proves it meets all terms of the program.

The district agreed to pay G. Davis $295,000 for the duration of the contract since schools were closed. The district will get back up to $167,000 of that if G. Davis “loan forgiveness application shows that PPP loan funds that do not need to be repaid were used for expenses specifically related to school district transportation during the school closure period.”

Soccer MOU approved

And the board approved a Memorandum Of Understanding (MOU) with the teacher union that helps pave the way for a plan to change the middle school soccer program from co-ed to separate teams for girls and boys. Under the MOU, the two teams will each have two coaches paid the same as under the current contract for middle school soccer positions.

In a long list of coaching appointments approved later in the meeting, those four positions were listed as open, with pay for the head coach of each team set at $3,450 and assistant coach pay set at $2,218.