Columbia Board of Education gets pandemic update on staffing, coronavirus vaccinations
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
The Columbia Board of Education got an update Thursday on staffing shortages in school amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Currently there are 270 eligible substitute teachers for CPS.
Watch playback of the meeting in the media players below.
The Board of Education spoke with EDUStaff about possible options making more substitute teachers eligible, including sending out notifications to those who have not finished their application and looking into alternate certifications to become a substitute. 189 people have started the online program to become a substitute teacher but have not finished the final modules to complete the program.
The board plans to look at the possibility of providing financial assistance for the substitute teacher program to help encourage people to sign up for the program.
The district has assigned 1-2 permanent substitute teachers to every high school and 1 long term substitute teacher for each middle school. These teachers are under contract to substitute only at the specific schools they're assigned to throughout the year. The district would like to assign more permanent substitute teachers to schools, but the cost for those teachers is expensive.
Staffing is also an issue for transportation and nutrition services. Over 100 more students needed transportation to and from school for the beginning of the spring semester. As of today, the board said 31 custodians are out due to COVID 19 district-wide and 9 will return to work tomorrow.
On Tuesday, 5,559 lunches were served to students and 480 grab and go meals were picked up. The board said grab and go meals will still be available for students learning virtually.
Board members also went over a Flu Vaccines and Vaccination Services Agreement Addendum with Boone Hospital, which was approved by the Board of Education in December.
Under the agreement, Boone Hospital Center will provide flu vaccinations to all district staff and eligible retirees and dependents for the next three years.
The administration is requesting ratification of an agreement addendum to include coronavirus vaccination services.
The agreement said coronavirus vaccines should be available to employess in Phase 1B for $10 per dose when vaccinated by Boone Hospital.
If a clinic needs to be set up at a CPS location, there will be a daily onsite fee of $125.
The board will send out a confidential survey to teachers to prioritize those who may need to receive the vaccine first because of health conditions.
After heading back to school in a hybrid learning model this week, the CPS 14 day rate case tracker recorded 70.3 cases of COVID-19 per 10,000 people Wednesday.
"The Board of Education has indicated a desire to review current data, as well as discuss how data will be used to make future decisions," the Board of Education agenda said.
The board discussed House Bill 228, pre-filed by Rep. Chuck Basye, R-Rocheport. The bill has received it's first and second hearing, the district decided they will continue to discuss the possibility of the bill being passed and how it would effect their policy. House bill 228 prevents any public school districts and charter schools from prohibiting a parent from audio recording and meeting held under the Federal Individuals Education Act. The board will continue to monitor the status of the bill and review policies with the Missouri School Board Association.
A new grading system for high school students was introduced at the meeting. The district will use an added point system for AP and other rigorous course classes to calculate a student's GPA. The AP classes will add an extra point to a student's GPA. This will also provide a safety net for student's looking to take challenging courses but are concerned with their GPA being affected. The grading system is planned to take effect for next school year.
