Five day, in-person instruction time frame pursued for OC Schools

During Board Orientation preceding the February session of the Obion County School Board Monday night, Board members Fritz Fussell, Keisha Hooper, Barry Adams, Tim Britt, Jared Poore, Kyle Baggett and Shannon Hogg, as well as Director of Schools Tim Watkins, heard from Trane representatives Jim Crone and Randy Mauldin, with updates of the school system’s Energy Efficiency Program underway by their company.

Crone reported the Inventory Grade Audit should be completed soon, with approximately 500 man hours spent over the past four months, conducting on site examinations of each campus within the school system, for all aspects of potential energy saving upgrades and renovations.

He explained to the board that plans are to conduct a work session with the School Board members Feb. 24, which will provide an opportunity to review each line item listed within each school campus, to determine the prioritization of upgrades.

The Obion County Commission’s Budget Committee will then make a determination as to cost estimates to fund the upgrades, as well as whether to recommend the project for consideration before the full Commission.

Crone stated if each process moves forward as expected, work could begin as soon as May, during a time in which student classes are not in session, and in the event Summer School is to be conducted at various school campuses, second and third shifts are observed by work crews, Crone said, to accommodate the classroom activities.

He noted work would be conducted on more than one campus simultaneously, with project managers assigned, most likely beginning with the installation of LED lighting.

“Lights fuel the whole project,” Crone said.

As to the proposed Calendar for the 2021-2022 School Year, Watkins said faculty members had been provided with a draft of the proposed calendar, and had expressed their overall approval, having only asked that Spring Break be pushed to later in the year, than had been originally proposed.

Watkins noted that there will no longer be a county wide system dismissal for “Fair Day” during the Obion County Fair in August, however any student who competes in a Fair sanctioned event will not be counted absent nor will the absence impact perfect attendance awards.

Out of the system wide total student enrollment of approximately 3,100, Watkins reported currently there are 145 students participating in distance learning throughout the system. Of those 145, Watkins reported 30 students possess a medical diagnosis for participation in distance learning.

Watkins provided a school by school total for distance learning students, 6 at Black Oak; 15 at Hillcrest; 28 at Lake Road; 9 at Ridgemont; 7 at South Fulton Elementary, 36 at Obion County Central and 29 at South Fulton Middle/High School.

Watkins said the Board that the system had maintained a less than 10% positivity rate within the system, until Monday, with a slight increase above 10%.

Board Chair Fritz Fussell asked when and how a determination would be made to return students to a five day in-person school week.

He noted there are other systems in the area which have returned to five days of in-class, in-person instruction, and with the number of distance learners steadily decreasing, the workload for instructional materials to be provided, should also be reduced for teachers.

Watkins said the system should most likely be able to record “a couple of weeks below the 10% positivity rate” to move forward with a return to five day weeks.

Fussell said in the beginning it was mentioned perhaps one teacher per grade could accommodate the production of educational material and work packages, since the number necessary to produce has declined substantially from the number of students who chose distance learning earlier in the school year.

“Some kids are struggling. There are kids who are not getting any help on anything on Fridays,” Fussell said, adding that not having in-person instruction on Fridays was “not for the kids.”

“We need to set some date, whether we end up going back to five days on that date or not.”

“I would love to tomorrow,” Watkins said, adding he planned to discuss a proposed time frame to return to five days at a meeting on Thursday with Principals.

He suggested possibly March 5, the end of the grading period, to return to five in-person days of class

“Those who want to remain in distance learning can do so, but we need to get back to five days,” Fussell said.

Board member Barry Adams asked Watkins to discuss the options of a return to five days with school administrators and report back to the board their input.

Board member Keisha Hooper, as well as Watkins, emphasized high school students should now have possession of their personal laptops provided by the school system, which should also decrease the amount of paper materials’ packets required, as materials will be accessible through the laptop, as teachers utilize that method more for assignments and homework.

South Fulton Middle School’s 2020 Football team was recognized during the Feb. 1 meeting of the Obion County School Board at 7 p.m., at Union City’s Central Board office, with a team record of seven wins and one loss, a five win, one loss conference record, and a claim to the Reelfoot Conference Championship crown. Head Coach Jeremy McFarland and Assistant Coach Chad Malray were also recognized.

South Fulton High School students Drew Barclay, Jacob Lily, Jonathan Morris, Garrett Slaughter and Jhems “Kenny” Wallace were honored by the board, for their achievements of joining the ranks of the ACT 30+ Club.

On their ACT, Morris scored a 31, Barclay, Lily and Wallace, a 31 and Slaughter, 30.

Under New Business, board members present, Fritz Fussell, Keisha Hooper, Tim Britt, Barry Adams, Kyle Baggett, Shannon Hogg, and Jared Poore considered the recommendation for the 2021-2022 School Year Calendar.

In that draft, presented by Director of Schools Tim Watkins, registration is set for July 13 and July 20, 2021, with July 28-Aug. 2 designated as Professional Development/Administrative Days.

The first day for students in class will be Aug. 3.

In September, classes will be dismissed for Labor Day Sept. 6, with Sept. 16 Professional Development Day and Parent/Teacher conferences.

Oct. 11-15 will be Fall Break, Nov. 24-26 is Thanksgiving Break and Christmas Break is Dec. 20-31, with Dec. 17 an abbreviated 1/2 day.

Jan. 3, 2022 is an Administrative Day, with no classes in session, and Jan. 17 classes are dismissed in observance of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday.

In February, Feb. 21, classes are dismissed in observance of President’s Day and March 18 is a Professional Development Day with no classes in session.

March 28-April 1 is Spring Break. April 15, classes are dismissed for Good Friday.

May 18 is the final full day for classes to be in session, May 19 is an abbreviated 1/2 school day, May 20 and May 23 are Administrative Days with no classes in session.

In regard to Inclement Weather/Sickness Days observed according to circumstances, make up days in excess of 10 cancelled school days may be observed for students to be in session for class on Feb. 3, 21; March 18, 28, 29, 30, 31; and April 1.

In the Personnel Report, reviewed by the board, a resignation was listed for Susan Burpo, first grade teacher at Lake Road.

Leaves of Absence were approved for Amber Garrigus, Special Education teacher at Obion County Central High School and Steve Jonas, Custodian at Obion County Central.

New hires listed included Brandon Grooms, Custodian at Lake Road, Crystal Roberson, Food Service at Lake Road, Deedra Lee, Special Education Assistant at South Fulton Elementary, Charla Ring, Preschool Assistant at Lake Road and Karen Stough, Custodian at Hillcrest.

New substitute teachers approved were Autumn Faulkner, Richard Owens, Anna Kendall and Carly Bramlett.

With a recommendation from Watkins, the Board approved an overnight trip for the Obion County Central High School Cheer group, April 21-27, to Orlando, Fla., for a competition, previously scheduled but postponed, and now rescheduled.

A new board policy was adopted, #5.3052, recommended by Administration of Obion County Schools, as Board Policy #5.3051, FFCRA Leave, expired Dec. 31, 2020, in accordance with federal law.

The new policy, Local Covid-19 Leave, extends some of the provisions originally set forth in the FFCRA to employees, to be evaluated monthly during 2021. The previous policy provided up to two weeks, 80 hours, of paid leave for employees who satisfied the statute, for example, going into quarantine or testing positive for COVID.

The new policy, specifically, would continue to allow the use of the two weeks, if not yet used for the declaration of a federal, state or local quarantine or isolation order, or the employee experiencing COVID-19 symptoms, seeking a medical diagnosis, or the employee has been advised by a health care provider to self-quarantine related to COVID-19. Furthermore the new policy would discontinue from the previous policy, the reason “caregiving for others”, because those reasons have not been used as regularly, according to administration, are subject to abuse and are difficult to administer and fund.

The two weeks applies to employees who may have exhausted their FFCRA Leave under the previous policy, begins Jan. 1, 2021, and is set to expire at the end of March.

Board members were updated as to the Benefits from State Personnel Development Grant, SPDG, 3.0 for the 2020-2021 school year, with the grant’s focus to increase access to high quality core instruction and provide increasing intensive interventions.

Facilitators Greg Barclay, Michele Bell and Mindy Coursey completed extensive ZOOM training during the Summer of 2020, and then amended that training to conduct system wide training prior to the start of the school year.

Topics of training included virtual engagement, virtual instruction and intervention, virtual assessment of student learning, revisiting virtual engagement, connecting the instructional appropriate IEP and Collaboration: Stronger Together.

This year, $10,000 in grant funds were received, for classroom supplies to assist students with disabilities in accessing general education and C-pens.