Step three of USD 253’s learning plan is progressing well so far.
During the USD 253 Board of Education meeting, Wednesday evening interim Superintendent Dr. Allison Anderson-Harder presented a COVID-19 update to the board. The report comes as the district moved into step three of the secondary education plan on Monday bringing 50 percent of the student population at both Emporia Middle School and Emporia High School back to in-person learning along with the continuous onsite cohort of students with specialized learning needs.
At this time, the district is recommending the board continue with phase three and monitor COVID trends in the community. Dr. Anderson-Harder says the district is also continuing to place a large emphasis on mitigation strategies for one simple reason, they are working.
Anderson-Harder says the district did see a slight dip in attendance on Monday at the start of step three, however, that was related purely to the weather and not COVID-19. Since then attendance has been steady at between 50 to 72 percent.
The district is preparing to send out a parent’s choice survey regarding the third trimester of the year. The survey will gauge whether or not parents would like to change their preferred learning option for students — switch from remote to in person or vice versa.
The survey comes as Anderson-Harder reports the district has seen an increase in the number of students choosing to attend in person.
Dr. Anderson-Harder will present the next COVID-19 update during the board’s next regular meeting.
In other business, the board received a construction update on the Building for the Future initiative with work currently ongoing at Walnut Elementary, the new Jones Early Childhood Development Center and Emporia High School.
According to Eric Woltjie of McCownGordon Construction work has been progressing on schedule since late last year, however, it has hit a small snag in recent days. Due to the ongoing inclimate weather impacting the area Woltjie says work will be slightly delayed over the next week to two weeks.
Woltjie says the delay will not completely disrupt their progress as investigative work will continue at Walnut and EHS as the bitter weather persists.
Following the update, the board spent the remainder of Wednesday’s meeting in executive session discussing the ongoing superintendent search. No details from those sessions are available, however, the board is scheduled to begin interviews with candidates next week.
Interviews are scheduled to take place Monday through Friday of next week at 5:30 pm inside the Mary Herbert Education Center. Candidates’ names will be released the day of their interview at 8 am according to Public Relations Director Lyndel Landgren.
