Last Friday, all schools in Indiana received the Indiana Department of Education’s 38-page Consideration for Learning and Safe Schools In-Class, a health and safety re-entry guidance guide to reopening schools because of COVID-19.
What the guide has done has sent schools into a mad scrabble trying to figure out the best way to safely reopen schools this fall.
“We need to be safe and we need to make sure we’re doing the right thing,” said Community Schools of Frankfort Superintendent Don DeWeese. “We need to think through every sensible possibility that we can to make things safer for our kids so that their learning experience remains positive and that our kids remain healthy.”
Kids have been in school very little since mid-March when Governor Holcomb officially cancelled the remainder of the school year which forced most schools to go to an e-learning system to finish out the year.
DeWeese and Assistant Superintendent Joel McKinney met with school board officials Tuesday night to try and hammer out some sort of a list which needs to be ready to go by July 14.
“Every indicator says schools are going to change,” said DeWeese. “Schools are going to look different and it’s going to sound different. It’s very similar to life itself. We usually are a pretty good reflection of what’s going on in the world.
“There’s a lot of things that have to happen,” DeWeese continued. “We’ve got teachers, we’ve got parents and we even have some of our students working on the task force.”
Board members acknowledged things will be drastically different.
“Kids need to be back in school,” said board member Sandy Miller. “I don’t think there’s an easy answer to this. We have to be realistic about our expectations.”
DeWeese said “there will be no more routine” and added that the start of school might be delayed. School is scheduled to start Thursday, August 6.
“It’s important to get our kids back in school,” said DeWeese. “They (the school board) feel that the kids need that. The learning experience, the structure and schedule, all of that is not only important to our kids, families and schools, it’s good for the entire community as well.”
Another important thing that happened was DeWeese turned a letter into the board saying that he is going to retire at least six months earlier than planned.
“Right now, I feel good and healthy,” said DeWeese. “I want to have a chance at enjoying my retirement with my wife and my family.”
DeWeese’s retirement date was June 30, 2021. It is now January 11, 2021.
The board accepted DeWeese’s letter, but will not act on it until the July board meeting.