Centralia Public Schools continues discussions on resuming fall classes

CENTRALIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

School is set to resume at Centralia Public Schools Aug. 24 and leaders are working to decide what that will look like during COVID-19.

Since the beginning of July, 10 cases of COVID-19 have been reported to the Columbia/Boone County Health Department from Centralia zip codes.

Seven of those cases have been in people from the age range of 0-14, one has been from the age range of 25-29, and two have been from 35-39.

Steven Chancellor, the superintendent of Centralia Public Schools, said there are ongoing conversations between the health department and other school districts.

Chancellor said a group of superintendents from different school districts in Boone County meet each week via Zoom.

The district has been using summer school, which began on Monday, as one way to see what works and what does not under the new normal.

The district's goal is to beginning communicating a more clear plan to CPS families around Aug. 1.

"We're a district of 1,400 kids. We have the luxury of not needing to know all of the answers in the middle of June or even the middle of July," Chancellor said. "We're paying attention to things. We're putting things on paper but we're putting it in on pencil not pen."

District leaders do know right now that some things will be different when the school year begins. Most of the changes will revolve around social distancing.

"Simple things like we're going to eat our breakfast and lunches in classrooms so that it helps with the distancing," he said.

"How we transition from classes. How we try to separate people during the morning drop offs and the afternoon pick ups," Chancellor said.

Students and staff will not be required to wear masks, although teachers may wear masks if they need to have close contact with a students. Chancellor said it will be important for the district to keep an open mind about the topic.

There are still some things district leaders have not decided or do not have a full plan for.

Chancellor said they will offer an online option for students, but it is not clear what that will look like yet.

"Were trying to figure out how we can partner with some of the other smaller school districts and leverage resources to meet the needs of these people because the reality is is those platforms are expensive and they take people to manage and it takes resources.," he said.

Another unknown is how the district will work with substitute teachers if a teacher needs to quarantine or tests positive. Chancellor said substitute teachers are already difficult to find at times.

He said it may depend on things like availability. A substitute may also choose not to take the job because they feel it may pose to high of a risk to their own health.

Chancellor said staff will keep a close eye on students to make sure they are social distancing, and will come up with create ways to remind kids to do so. He said he has already seen teachers doing this in summer school.

"For example, in Kindergarten they talk about having superhero hands between them and the next person," he said.

He said routine will be key for making sure students follow guidelines, and eventually, they will begin to monitor each other.

He said Centralia has the benefit of being a smaller school, which can make dealing with the virus or tracking it easier in some ways. He said they will try to keep students in stable groups so there not a lot of crossover.

"Having that ability to track a student's movement throughout the day at a very high accurate level will be I think key to if and when we get positive cases and we're trying to determine how does that affect our ability to be open or what are the ripple effects," he said.

Several parents of Centralia students said do not know what the return to classes will look like but they do hope their kids can get into the classroom and stay there.

Chancellor said listening to feedback from parents and students, and being able to adapt quickly will be important once school starts.