USD 253 Emporia Public Schools will be taking the next step in integrating more students into in-person classes at the secondary level by the end of this month.
The action comes following a recommendation by the district’s COVID-19 advisory committee to move into step two of the district’s learning model approved back in July. This will mean no changes to the parent choice hybrid model for elementary education with more students being permitted to attend in-person education at the middle and high school levels.
Superintendent Kevin Case made the recommendation following several meetings with the advisory committee. Case says during a meeting last week he posed an important question to the committee that ultimately led to Wednesday’s discussions.
Board member Jeremy Dorsey made the motion to approve the recommendation stating he echoed the committee’s feelings on the matter.
As part of phase two, the district will continue to have its consistent on-site cohort of in-person students with specialized academic or social-emotional support needs, however, the number of additional students attending classes will increase from 12.5 percent of the student population to 25 percent or approximately 294 students at EMS and 325 students at EHS. Those students will also attend on-site classes once every week rather than once every two weeks as with phase one. There will be no change for previously stated measures for extracurricular activities, including athletics.
The district will enter phase two beginning next Wednesday, Sept. 30.
The motion to approve phase two followed a separate motion to amend prior action taken by the board in their previous meeting where they approved the implementation of state gating criteria three weeks after the start of the school year. Rather than the criteria being the sole driver for decision making throughout the school year, the amendment now makes it one of several metrics the board will utilize when making decisions regarding specific learning activities and access models for the school year.
Additional criteria will include CDC guidance, staff and student attendance, quarantine data, input from the advisory committee and other information deemed necessary by the superintendent.
In other business, board members approved the maximum guaranteed price of just over $10.6 million for construction on the district’s new early childhood education center as part of the Build for the Future bond initiative. The board also approved the Build for the Future Executive Committee (BFEC) to apply funds up to the maximum master budget value of just over $13.3 million.
According to McCownGordon Construction project estimator Charlie Ochs the project received 131 bids and is currently $167,000 under budget.
The Board of Education will next convene on Wednesday, Oct. 14 at 7 pm inside the Mary Herbert Education Center.
