HOWARD — East Knox Local Schools superintendent Steve Larcomb answered some community questions regarding their 2020-21 school year reopening plan that was posted to their Facebook page last week.
“So as of today, I’ve sent out the plan, as I call it set in Jell-O for the start of school, (and) school starts five weeks from yesterday,” Larcomb said. “The plan has already changed three times and it may change more between now and then.”
One of the bigger concerns parents have, Larcomb said, was surrounding how the online academy would operate. At this point, Larcomb explained that they are considering their options when it comes to teachers operating the online classrooms or having a company provide separate online instructions. The problem with that, he continued, would be if a student chooses to either move to in-person instruction from online or vice versa. That conversation is in the works.
“As far as the online digital academy, we put out … a Google form and we put the application (to) actually open it online last night,” Larcomb said. “I checked this afternoon and we already had 58 students signed up for online instruction. That’s basically 5 percent of our student body. … So there’s a lot of interest early on.”
Larcomb anticipates that anywhere around 10 to 15 percent of students might choose to attend online instruction. He added that the deadline for that form would be July 31 but an actual commitment is not needed until later on. The purpose of this was to get an idea of how many students would want to attend online. And once a commitment is made, he asks that students stay in that choice because of issues regarding space and staffing, but it wouldn’t be a hard and fast rule.
“If they go out, then we can buy another license, or if the teachers are teaching online, that’s a pretty seamless transition,” Larcomb said. “But what I’ve tried to express to our teaching staff is that we need to provide meaningful instruction to our students across the board. … And like I said, we’re going to use a common sense approach and we’ll go from there.”
To help those who choose to learn online, the board approved a quote from Xtek Partners for 96 Chromebooks, services and three carts for $28,773. Larcomb said that the plan is to provide online learners with a device.
Other topics like attendance and what would happen if a teacher would become sick came up during the meeting. Larcomb said that they are currently working on how they would track attendance and what would be required if a student would miss school. Teachers, on the other hand, might be a bit tricky because Larcomb said finding substitute teachers might be tough.
“We have little to no expectations that substitute teachers would be available and willing to walk into school buildings. If you think about it, a 65 year old retiree, who’s going to go, like a bee, from classroom to classroom, day after day … I don’t see that happening,” Larcomb said, adding that they are working on how to figure it all out.
The board also:
•Approved a memorandum of understanding with the East Knox Education Association as a present for payment of supplemental contracts.
•Approved the purchase from Acorn Distributors of 4 Clorox Total 360 Systems and associated cleaner for $16,385.76.
•Approved the East Knox Local Schools remote learning plan and authorized the superintendent to submit the plan to the Ohio Department of Education.
•Approved a quote from Xtek Partners for strutted cabling/additional fiber installation in the administration building for $4,624.87.
•Approved various service contracts, supplemental contracts, stipends and employments.
