After much anticipation and discussion, USD 253 Emporia finally begins its academic year.
Classes are now underway after a summer full of lengthy board meetings on how best to start the year in light of the coronavirus pandemic. Superintendent Kevin Case said there have been divergent viewpoints on how to move forward, but he’s pleased with the civil and productive nature of the discussions.
The district starts the year with options for students to learn in the classroom and remotely, although the in-class structure is different for elementary students and middle school or high school students. For elementary students, they can attend face-to-face as long as they are symptom-free. Middle school and high school students using the traditional in-class model will only be at school one day every two weeks to start the first trimester, with the current plan gradually bringing students back to school buildings more frequently as health trends permit.
Masks and temperature checks are required. Classrooms will be set up to accommodate social distancing guidelines.
Case says the goal has always been to set up plans with the best interest of the district’s students and staff in mind.
The situation may change in three weeks when the district formally begins using certain gating criteria to determine whether to have face-to-face learning and how to handle extracurricular activities. Those criteria include Lyon County’s two-week percent-positive case rate, two-week cumulative incidence rate and trend and student absenteeism as based on lst year’s building-level average daily attendance.
Full details about the current learning models and gating criteria are online at www.usd253.org.
USD 253 Emporia and Sacred Heart Elementary are the last two area school systems to being their academic years. We’ll touch base with Case and Sacred Heart Principal Darby O’Neill to update the start of their fall terms as part of an ongoing interview series with superintendents and building administrators on KVOE’s Morning Show this month.
