Schools continue to report re-openings going well

More schools opened up last week with re-opening plans tooled to the COVID-19 pandemic and told The Havre Daily News how the first week had gone.

Harlem starts school today.

Chester-Joplin-Inverness 

Chester-Joplin-Inverness Schools planned to return back to school at full capacity and with face-to-face instruction.

“It really went pretty smoothly,” Superintendent Tim Bronk said. “The first day, like any school year we had our hiccups along the way and things we had to adjust.”

He said everyone is getting their temperature checked upon arrival.

Last Tuesday, Liberty County had an increase in four new active cases when it previously had only one active case, confirmed in March.

Face masks are now required.

In the auditorium, he said, students will be sat in every other seat and every other row, as well as in the lunchroom.

No issues regarding busing, he said

“It’s going very, very well,” he said. “I’m seeing kids wearing masks on the playground, in the classrooms.”

He added that the school is taking all the precautions it can and it is being disinfected at the end of every day.

“I feel pretty comfortable that we’re doing everything that we can, I don’t know if it’s enough, but we’re doing what we can to be reasonably prudent about providing a safe environment,” Bronk said.

CJI has 210 students enrolled with none choosing to opt out from the classroom and only use distanced learning.

Chinook

Chinook Public Schools decided to return in full capacity this coming school year.

“It’s gone really well,” Superintendent Darin Hannum said. “Our kids are excited to be here, our staff has worked very hard to put things together appropriately.” 

Temperatures of students, staff and parents will be taken a minimum of once a day after entering the building, the plan says. If a student has a temperature of 100.4 or more, they will be isolated and sent home.

He said social distancing has been a challenge and making sure the schools’ schedules are fit right to allow social distancing to take place.

Classrooms are going to be cleaned between classes and the bathrooms will be cleaned frequently throughout the day, he said.

Chinook has 330 students in the buildings with 12 students who have opted-out, he added.

If students start online education, he said, they have to continue it for a semester.

“I think people in general have been good,” Hannum said. “It’s a difficult time with conflicting things coming down to us, but our kids have been phenomenal — I think that’s the main thing. Our kids want to be in school and they are willing to do what it takes to be here.

“They just haven’t learned all the habits to make that successful would be the biggest key — habits like how to social distance those things are learning environments,” he added. 

Havre

Havre Public Schools opened with a blended plan with half of the students coming in one day and the other half on the next day.  

“It’s very excited to see students back in the building, that kind of goes with saying, but I was really impressed by the planning and preparation that our teachers engaged in and then being able to execute not only the re-opening plan, but being so flexible in their own right to make sure addressing needs of students,” Interim Superintendent Craig Mueller said.

Group A will meet Mondays and Wednesdays and Group B will meet Tuesdays and Thursdays. 

Friday will be a remote learning day for all students.

In the event school is not in session Monday, Tuesday will serve as the A day, moving the days back with school in session on Friday.

Mueller said it is a work in progress.

“Was it perfect? Absolutely not, we knew that. It wasn’t perfect before and moving forward we are doing everything we can to improve a couple areas I know we’re talking about at the district level to get better at,” Mueller said.

Those areas include doing something with the transportation department, he said, with people who have been working so hard to try to get students on buses and abide by social distancing and wearing a mask.

Another challenging area is logging in and using passwords into the remote learning, he said.

Havre Public Schools has had 244 of the district’s 1,740 students opt out, which includes 57 from Havre High; 43 from Havre Middle School; 46 from Sunnyside Intermediate School; 45 from Lincoln-McKinley Primary School and 53 from Highland Park Early Primary School.

Box Elder

Box Elder Public Schools continued with distance learning at least for two weeks for its upcoming school year.

“Our first week of school was drastically different than any other school year opening I’ve been a part of,” Superintendent Jeremy MacDonald said. “Starting school with distance learning is presenting a new set of challenges of which I’m confident our staff will overcome.  We prioritized setting up our meal service and getting students the technology they need to participate in school digitally.  There are a few items we still need to work out.”

Some things that went well include the early connection the staff made with the  students, staff flexibility and cooperation, he said.

He added that the students have shown an eagerness to participate.

“Overall, I felt good about how we started given the circumstances and I expect good things to happen at our school, both in the building and on the digital platform,” MacDonald said. “It helps to have caring, hard working people and we have many at our school.  I was proud of everyone’s efforts to adapt and make connections with students and their families to get the year started.”

Since Box Elder started with distance learning, he said, the schools have provided families time to decide if they are going to opt-out for in-person learning at the school for the first nine weeks.  

He said from a survey the school conducted he anticipates the number to be around 60 percent, but with a potential COVID-19 case increase more families may decide on distance learning only. 

 The school board has a special board meeting today to confirm students can start in person Sept. 8.  

“Our initial plan is to operate at 25 percent so we can set up new routines and procedures,” MacDonald said. “If that goes well we will look to increase our percentage of students in the building but a lot will depend on local spread of the virus.”  

Rocky Boy Public Schools did not respond by print deadline this morning.

Of the schools that started before last week, St. Jude Thaddeus School has 140 students in its building with none who opted-out.

Turner School has 62 students in the building and two who have opted-out.

North Star School declined to give numbers, but reported it had less than 5 percent of its student population opt-out.

Big Sandy has six students who chose to opt-out and 179 students in the building.