Northern Wyoming News - Serving the Big Horn Basin for over 100 years

WORLAND – Washakie County School District No. 1 held a town hall discussion via Zoom on Thursday, Aug. 13, one day after the Worland school board decided to delay the reopening of East Side School after reported COVID-19 cases among staff.

The presentation featured administrators highlighting points of the reopening plan that was used when most schools in the district opened Tuesday, Aug. 18.

The presentation featured information, which was outlined last week in the Northern Wyoming News, on the school district's reopening guide that was approved by state and county health officials. Worland's Teacher of the Year Jannel Scheuerman presented a story that would highlight a typical day for a student at school.

Select questions during the limited time from the public during the town hall featured around masks, what would happen if someone were to contract the virus and what are certain rules that would be in place to enforce children wearing masks or being socially distanced.

EAST SIDE

On Wednesday, Aug. 12, the Worland school board voted to delay the reopening of East Side Elementary until today, Aug. 20, due to two staff testing positive for COVID-19 and some staff being placed under quarantine as a result.

Board member Susan Scheuerman brought up a discussion point centered on what parents are supposed to do if they have students at multiple schools. She asked administrators why they just would not delay the start of the year for all schools by two days.

"This is not a perfect scenario," Superintendent David Nicholas said. "We thought we would keep it as on schedule as much as we could, we still think it is right to start as scheduled."

Nicholas said that he agreed with Scheuerman that it would be a problem for some families to figure out babysitting or daycare for that day.

The district made the decision as they felt it was important to delay the start so that kindergarten and first grade students had their teacher on the first day. East Side will need to make up the two days to meet the student-teacher contact days for the year. Those days will be on what was previously scheduled teacher professional development days on Nov. 9, 2020, and Jan. 22, 2021.

The district is seeking an exemption with the Wyoming Department of Education for those two days.

LETTER

The Worland Education Association (WEA) sent a letter to the district regarding concerns prior to school opening. According to WEA president Vickie Overcast, the letter was sent regarding concerns that they felt needed to be addressed prior to school opening, even calling for a delay of school opening by three weeks.

"The reason we wrote it is to open discussion up in the community with parents, teachers, staff and the central office," Overcast said.

Overcast said that the district met with the WEA at the WEA's request prior to the school board meeting on July 30 where the reopening plan was approved. The letter was sent after the recent cases confirmed at East Side.

Other concerns throughout the letter stress the importance of communication from the district, the importance that the staff receives the proper training and direction in order for them to help students as soon as possible. The WEA hopes that the district will hold more informational meetings that allow for open dialogue between the public and the administration.

Overcast said the letter was sent in concern for students and staff returning in a completely safe manner, and she understands that it is a difficult time for everyone and hopes that the district takes their concerns into consideration.

"Our association does applaud and support our administration in their efforts for all of us," Overcast said. "We do have concerns though that we all have proper training, clarity of rules that need to be enforced for students', staff and administrators' safety and we hope to keep all the lines of communication open to work as a collective whole in our district."

Overcast said that she understands that these are uncharted waters navigating around the COVID-19 pandemic.

Nicholas said that he received the letter on August 12, and that he has reviewed the letter with administration, trustees and teachers and will consider the 15 items and see if there are places in the reentry plan that would benefit from the ideas.

Nicholas said that "the district supports all thinking that brings our students and staff back to school safely."