School concerns brought to light

“I don’t believe this is the first time this concern has ever come up,” Seder said. “Obviously, as we went through a period here at the very beginning of summer with a lot of protests and things like that, names on buildings has come to the forefront.”

Seder continued saying that he did want to recognize the concern that was brought their way in regards to the naming of the elementary school. The district doesn’t want to make any knee-jerk reactions, Seder said, and that a process would need to be involved when looking at those sorts of things. Seder said that he would like to bring up what that process would look like and how the board should proceed with this concern at another board meeting.

In that same vein, Andrea White spoke before the board during the public participation portion of the board in regard to a recent referendum that was passed by the Ohio State Board of Education. While also being a concerned parent about the reopening of schools, White spoke from her place representing Families of Inclusive Schools about the recent passage of a racial injustice referendum.

“There are already several districts across Ohio that have already acted on racial justice and social justice, either by passing a resolution or taking it further by creating working groups of teachers, students, parents and paid professionals,” White said, adding that Wiggin Street Elementary has created such a group. “I encourage the board to seek out that support and to create an equity team to address all district and building policies, handbooks and curriculum and to adopt an anti-racist policy with specific directions on how to implement it.”

Seder attached a link to the board member’s agenda sending them to the article about the referendum.

“I think it makes a lot of sense and I think it’s an area that we certainly need to be mindful of,” Seder said. “I think that we can come up with a resolution that kind of really matches that aspiration of those goals.”

In regards to the reopening plans, April Thompson, a Mount Vernon Education Association representative and teacher, shared with the board the results of a reopening survey done among teachers at MVCSD. The results showed that the top five concerns were related to face masks, physical distancing, district policy for teachers, substitute teachers and sanitation. Each area of concern, Thompson explained, had their own questions that still needed to be answered.

Other areas of concern included possible special consideration at the K-2 levels, which Thompson said were the formative years for children where they are still learning how to wash their hands properly, as well as giving teachers more time to plan for the different options of school reopening and concerns for teachers being in the high-risk category.

“So then, what do we do with this information?” Thompson asked. “Well, our next step, my next step, is to share this information with the reopening committee and then assist in developing policy that we feel helps not only the kids but all teachers. We really want to keep all of these (concerns) in the forefront when we’re having those discussions.”

To help clarify some of the issues the restart committee is looking at, Seder shared a short slideshow regarding some concerns and challenges that are coming up. The two biggest issues, Seder pointed out, were in regards to social distancing and face masks. These challenges and questions are still being worked on by the restart committee with the goal to get all students in the building.

While there is a lot of community concern, Seder said that they want to respect all viewpoints but there isn’t a ‘win-win’ situation to reopening schools. However, Seder said the committee will be looking through what he called the district perspective where they look at the situation through the eyes of parents, staff, students and all stakeholders.

“While we came out with a ‘Green’ aspirational start, there was some criticism that we weren’t thinking about the health and safety of staff, and that’s simply just not true” Seder said. “The devil in the details are the work that we’re ongoing now... We still believe that students learn better when they’re physically in school and instructed by their teacher of their typical peers. However, we must be agile and able to adapt to changing circumstances.”

And circumstances may change tomorrow, with many board members agreeing that they don’t know what tomorrow will bring because the situation they’re in is fluid.

In other news, the board also:

• Approved all six elementary school handbooks.

• Accepted the donations of a Padcaster System and $7,210.95 for the purchase of 11’ iPad Pro and leveled books for the book room from the Twin Oak PTO to Twin Oak.

• Approved a resolution for cooperative advertising and receiving bids with META Solutions for two school buses.

• Approved the Heartland Outdoor Environmental Education School confirmation and rental contract for 5th-grade outdoor school scheduled for May 10-12, 2021.

• Approved the resignation of Mindy Essex, Casey Gray and Terry Streby.

• Suspended gym teacher Andrew Walsh without pay. Walsh was recently charged with raping a 15-year-old student in 2018.