Fall re-opening changes ‘day to day'

SULPHUR BLUFF—Though any fall re-opening is subject to change, Sulphur Bluff ISD school board members made clear their desire to start the semester on time in August at the regular meeting Thursday night.

“I’d really like to start on time, if they [the Texas Education Agency] allow us,” board president Donnie Powers said, and board member Chris Bassham concurred by saying he “wanted to get the ball rolling.”

The state provided the school with one no-contact temperature checker for roughly 220 students, and Superintendent Dustin Carr said three more have been ordered. Bassham suggested stationary temperature checkers be placed at each entrance if it was affordable.

“I don’t know if you could do it [checks] in one place,” Bassham said when some board members proposed only station be purchased.”

Carr said elementary, junior high and high school students will enter at different entrances and head straight to their classrooms. Breakfast might be served in the classroom, according to Carr.

Sanitization with easily accessible hand sanitizer and regular deep cleaning will be a part of the tentative fall re-opening plan, and Carr said the carpets had recently been cleaned.

Masks will likely be required for the start of the year due to Gov. Greg Abbott’s executive order, and Carr was concerned about indirect impacts masks could have.

“If you have a Pre-K teacher, they’re trying to teach phonics, and they’ll be wearing a mask,” Carr said. “That just doesn’t seem practical.”

A survey done by the district reported 78.6% of families wanted on-campus instruction, and most families preferred their children receive paper packets for remote learning.

“That may be a reflection of whether or not they know they can get service at their house,” Bassham said.

According to Carr, the district has enough Chromebooks to cover the high school, and they also have iPads for younger students who do not have home access. Carr added he is considering hotspots for any sudden closures during the year.

Board vice president Terry Goldsmith worried about the availability of hotspots, saying, “The whole state and nation [will be] trying to get them.”

Transportation guidelines have been relaxed, Carr said, which was a relief to a potential logistical problem with re-opening. The district’s survey was split evenly between families wanting their children to ride a bus or not.

Any expenses related to COVID-19 measures should have been refunded through the federal government’s CARES Act, but Carr said the TEA threw a wrench in the process by slashing all districts’ state funding by 95% of the federal funds for which a district was eligible. Sulphur Bluff was eligible for about $30,000 through the CARES Act, but with TEA taking 95% of that from the district’s state funding, the district effectively receives only $1,500 total.

Bassham was surprised by the news, and Goldsmith called the situation “a racket.”