DAYTON–The School District will offer both in-person classes and distance learning for the 2020-21 school year. Two community Zoom meetings were held for families and staff to lend insight as to how re-opening at the start of the year will be executed on August 25.

The Zoom meetings were hosted by Superintendent Guy Strot with Public Health Administrator, Martha Lanman contributing.

The first meeting was attended by over 55 community members where Strot encouraged discussion about the last five months and the changes students and teachers made to adapted.

"We want kids to be able to talk about the last five months–what's it been like, and go through with the teacher so that teachers can understand it better," said Strot. "A lot of times, it's better to talk things out. We're going to talk about how this is a challenge that we can meet and we're going to have to meet. We're going to practice distance learning."

He also expressed his desire to keep distant learners progressing so they don't fall behind. "I want them [distance learners] to progress this year as close as possible to the kids in the classroom in the school, so that next year they can progress onto the next grade and not be falling behind."

Attendees were then able to ask question by chat during the meeting that lasted a little over 45 minutes.

Lanman expressed her bench mark of keeping cases to a minimum throughout the community, not just in the school district. She said this can be accomplished by keeping watch on the data found on the Department of Health dashboard and by complying with the State mandated safety protocols.

"It's really important that we keep the cases as low as possible throughout our whole community, not just in the school," said Lanman. "The guidance we are getting from the Department of Health is that we follow the data assessment dashboard. It is one of the tools we're supposed to use for opening and guidance for staying open. The tool is to gauge the positive cases within the last two weeks. I feel like we've done a great job in our community, but to keep it as low as possible so that we can open school and continue with school throughout the whole year."

She went on to explain that any positive cases will be reviewed about whether they are in the school or have contact with those in the school. If there is no contact with the school, then it would have no effect on school closure. "The Department of Health classifies an outbreak in the school as two kids getting COVID-19 who are in two different classrooms and who are not family, not friends hanging out together, not parents hanging out together, those two families just don't intermingle, said Lanman. "That would be an outbreak because I have two different situations of direct contact tracing where I have to see how many people have been in direct contact with those kids."

Lanman also indicated that if there were five or six active cases in the community within a two–week period, there would be pressure to close schools. Presently, the total number of positive cases in Columbia County is 12 within the county and four out of the county, with 15 recovered and one death.

Strot fully understands at some time during the school year, especially through the winter months, school could close. In anticipation of this action, he will do some practice runs to develop safe behaviors on how to drop-off or retrieve school related packets. "I fully expect to have to close the school down some time during the wintertime," he said. "We're going to practice for it. We're going to order a mailbox and we're going to put it out in front of the school and so if you need to drop off packets, you can just drop them off when you can."

The second meeting on August 17, presented similar information which included the revised reopening plan. As of the time of the meeting, Strot reported that 14 elementary students and 24 middle and high school students have opted for distance learning. There are 30 families remaining to contact which will provide more accurate numbers for in-person and distance learning.

-Chronicle photo by Melissa Gemmell

The meetings were recorded and the second meeting is available on the district's You Tube Channel for viewing.