Mat-Su schools change schedule

PALMER — The Mat-Su Borough School District changed their proposed schedule on Friday for middle school and high school students who are set to return to schools Aug. 19.

On Wednesday, the Mat-Su School Board heard the district’s mitigation plans for schools as they reopen and acting Superintendent Luke Fulp said that parents can expect to see individualized mitigation plans from the school their student attends on Aug. 12.

“You will see at each of our schools a banner on the outside of the facility that says ‘we are a covid smart school community.’ So part of our communication campaign is educating our families and students around proper mitigation practices and efforts to reduce the spread in our community and in our schools,” said Fulp. “Learning will not stop. We will not shut down school. We are having building closures and we are ensuring a continuity of learning that occurs in all grade levels throughout the year so there will not be disruption through building closure.”

On Friday, the schedules for students in grades 6-12 changed from seven periods to six, three of which will meet each week, and every Friday will be a virtual learning day where custodial staff members will undergo deep cleaning of each school building.

“There is no single solution that can address all of the needs of our students that does not come with a list of strengths and challenges. This particular solution prioritizes the need for students’ education to have continuity across the entire year while simultaneously addressing health concerns of the entire school community,” said incoming Superintendent Dr. Randy Trani.

Each student will attend three classes between Monday and Thursday with Friday utilized as an at home learning day. Students will then take their remaining three classes during the next week. As of July 27, 11,000 of the estimated 19,200 MSBSD students had registered for school. Of those 11,000 students, 70 percent will continue with at school instruction, 18 percent will receive correspondence and 12 percent have chosen to learn at home.

“Some are electing the at home learning model, some are electing correspondence study and we have the vast majority of all parents and students electing to remain in school and be provided with at school instruction,” said Fulp.

MSBSD announced that all students and staff in classrooms for third through 12th graders will be required to wear a face mask during school. On Friday, 108 new positive test results for COVID-19 were announced in Alaska with nine new cases in the Mat-Su. Wasilla had five new cases announced on Friday and 112 of the 151 total cases in Wasilla are listed as active. In Palmer, 60 of the 80 total cases are listed as active and two more positive test results were announced Friday.

“Know this is the beginning of lots of conversations as we continue to move forward,” said Alaska’s Chief Medical Officer Dr. Anne Zink. “There’s a famous epidemiologist who recently said it’s going to be easy to open schools, it’s going to be hard to keep them open and so we want to provide as many tools as possible to provide consistent education to our children and to be able to give school district’s the tools that they need to be able to keep schools open and to be able to keep kids educated regardless of what’s happening with covid.”

Alaska has a total of 2,990 positive cases, 2,069 of which are active with 133 cumulative hospitalizations and 23 deaths as a result of infection with COVID-19. The Mat-Su has a total of 267 cases and nearly 13 percent of the population has been tested with 13,635 individuals having been tested so far. Of the 267 cases in the Mat-Su, 197 are active with 68 recovered and two deaths.

Zink and Alaska Department of Education Commissioner Michael Johnson joined the meeting virtually. Fulp detailed a timeline of how the district has come up with their mitigation plan for reopening schools to in-person instruction. Before the 2019-20 school year had finished on May 19, a covid working group was established. The school board was presented with the initial plan and online registration and extended school year in-person instruction began on June 29. On July 27 just prior to the school board’s work session, new Alaska Smart Start guidance was released by the Department of Education and Early Development.

“What it will take is teamwork, exactly the kind of teamwork that we teach our students in class and in activities to have when we want them to solve problems and work together. That’s exactly what it’s going to take for us to make sure that we can educate kids, that we can outmaneuver this virus and not let it keep us from our core vision of seeing kids get a great education,” said Johnson.

MSBSD hosted seven forums attended by more than 400 people, including a virtual zoom meeting with Trani. Additionally, six employee town halls were held for MSBSD staff to ask questions between July 27 and July 30. Fulp said that due to changes in guidance from the Centers for Disease Control, levels of green, yellow and red had slightly changed, allowing for minimal community spread at a green level. Fulp said that each school will not need to shut down completely if one student has positive test results.

“If we do not have evidence of virus spreading in our school building it’s not necessarily a given that one single confirmed case will shut down a school and create a short term school closure. That is something that we’re prepared for,” said Fulp.

Each school has a designated isolation room if a student receives positive test results while at the school building. If a student tests positive, their parent would have to pick them up from school. Zink said that of cases in the United States, seven percent are in children under 18. Children under 18 account for less than one percent of deaths and one percent of hospitalizations, and that people in their 20’s and 30’s continue to see a rise in cases.

“This school year will be inherently different and look like no other school year before,” said Zink. “Exactly how it’s going to play out is going to depend a lot on Alaskans and the ways that we make sure our kids are not going to school when they’re sick the way that we are doing cohorting washing hands wearing face coverings I think that will play a big difference.”

Parents will be tasked with checking their children for symptoms at home before allowing them to go to school and each student is required to attend school with a mask on, however masks will be provided to those who do not have them.

Executive Director of Instruction Reese Everett gave an update on sports and activities happening currently within MSBSD. Everett said that teams had been meeting for workouts and training during the summer following the district’s return to practice guidelines. Wednesday was the first day of practice for tennis, football, cross-country, marching band, cheerleading, and coed soccer. Everett corresponded with athletic directors who reported smiles a mile wide on the faces of students getting to play sports again.

“Our hope and our goal and our mission and our planning is to be able to maintain that as safely as possible to the maximum extent possible,” said Everett. “The more folks we can get to understand the ways we can mitigate the spread, the more opportunity we’re going to be able to provide our students in those athletic and activity competitions that we all treasure so much.”

Everett said that MSBSD teams would not be permitted to travel to other districts for competitions or receive students from other districts to compete in the Valley unless guidance from the state changes. Schedules will be arranged so teams from MSBSD will still be able to have games against their district opponents, though Everett assumed that the number of games will significantly drop.

“MSBSD believes and research supports that it is essential to the physical and mental well being of students to return to physical activity and athletic competition. We do recognize that all students may be unable to return and sustain athletic activity at the same time across the state,” Everett read from the mitigation plan.

Everett said that competitions may be altered to cohort teams and continue competition, but quoted Alaska School Activities Association Executive Director Billy Strickland in his call to action for those who want to see sports.

“He held up a football helmet he said if you want to see kids in these masks we have to make sure that we’re staying in these masks,” said Everett.