By VERNON ROBISON
The Progress
School administrators and education advocates in both Moapa Valley and Virgin Valley were given new hope last week for local students to be able to return to live classes as the school year begins next month.
On Tuesday, July 21, Clark County School District (CCSD) trustees voted to set aside previous plans for a hybrid, live instruction/online back-to-school schedule and instead begin the school year with an all-online distance learning model. But built into that proposal was a special ‘carve-out’ for rural communities in the district that are meeting the state’s Phase 2 criteria as well as other health and safety criteria.
This special exception, proposed by Trustee Chris Garvey, recognized that COVID-19 numbers might be far less widespread in the rural areas of the district than in urban areas. For such areas with relatively few cases, the exception allowed for a blended learning model to be developed by rural schools. Such a model would let kids return to the classrooms earlier than urban schools under carefully controlled circumstances.
The vote brought a flurry of activity among local school administrators last week as they worked quickly to polish off plans for starting the school year with scarcely more than two weeks to go.
Fortunately, for Moapa Valley schools, drafts of plans were already in place. In a June 25 meeting of the Board of Trustees, CCSD Deputy Superintendent Brenda Larsen-Mitchell had recognized publicly that some unique treatment of rural areas might be merited. These could be considered on a case-by-case basis, she said.
This statement led School Organizational Teams (SOTs) in Moapa Valley to convene special summer meetings to work on possible plans that would bring students into the live classroom more than the blended model originally considered by CCSD officials. Each of the plans that resulted were unique to the specific circumstances and challenges faced by the individual schools.
At Ute Perkins Elementary in Moapa, for example, very little needed to be changed. At around only 100 students, the population at Perkins is already small enough that the school could return to a full, five-day week, all while easily meeting the required social distancing guidelines.
At Moapa Valley High School (MVHS), students could return to school for a four-day week. The fifth day, being proposed for Fridays, would be left open to allow for deep cleaning of the building.
The MVHS student body would be divided into cohorts. Cohort A would receive live classroom instruction for two class periods in the morning between 7:15 and 10:05. During that time Cohort B would be engaged in distance learning either at home or in supervised Learning Centers made available on campus. After a staggered lunch period which would allow for classrooms to be sanitized, the cohorts would switch off for the rest of the school day.
Plans at Mack Lyon Middle School would also have a four-day school week. The school day at Lyon would be divided into three sessions. Two would be for core subjects. The third would use distance learning techniques at school in a supervised learning center environment. This would include subjects like social studies, health and other elective courses.
Perhaps most challenging was drafting a plan for Grant Bowler Elementary. With a student population similar in size to urban elementary schools, the Bowler facility is not big enough to accommodate the entire student body in a daily session while meeting social distance requirements.
But the Bowler SOT worked hard over multiple meetings to come up with several possible options on making in-person classes work also on a four day per week basis.
The preferred Bowler plan has grades K-2 coming back to full day classes. This was possible due to the smaller class sizes in those grades. The larger classes in grades 3-5 would be divided into a morning and an afternoon cohort for half days of live instruction. The other half of the day for each cohort would be distance learning at home. A period during the lunch hour would be used to sanitize classrooms before the afternoon cohort arrived.
All four schools would offer a full distance education option for families not comfortable sending their children to school yet.
Last week’s Board of Trustees vote breathed new energy into these local plans. Principals and members of school staff worked last week putting finishing touches to the plans in preparation for an expected meeting with CCSD central officials early this week.
In addition, principals in Virgin Valley were in communications with Moapa Valley principals on developing plans of their own. They expressed an interest in both valleys working together on a unified plan that would encompass all of the northeast Clark County schools.
During a Moapa Valley Community Education Advisory Board (MVCEAB) meeting held on Friday, July 24, Bowler principal Shawna Jessen said that the SOTs had gone as far as they could in making plans.
But Jessen emphasized that there were still obstacles to overcome to make the plans work. CCSD central administrators are the only ones who can address many of those obstacles, she said.
Among these obstacles were limitations dealing with bus transportation, food service requirements, staffing contracts and more, Jessen said.
“I feel like this has been a truly monumental shift that the trustees would make such a decision for the rural areas,” Jessen said. “But we are not quite out of the woods yet. We have to wait for (CCSD officials) to come out next week and work through some of these details with us to address each one. I believe it can be done. But there is still a lot of ground to cover.”
Parents in attendance at the MVCEAB meeting asked questions about an array of details regarding the plans.
One of the more frequent questions asked was on the subject of young children being required to wear face coverings throughout the school day.
“I know parents who are struggling over sending their kid back to school just based on that one issue,” said Moapa parent Wendy Jensen who was in attendance at the meeting.
The principals responded that they would initially be bound to follow the state guidelines in place that require face coverings for people in public places.
But Lyon principal Ken Paul said that he had carefully researched the Governor’s face mask directive and found some helpful information in it that pertained to young school kids. Firstly, children under 9 years old are exempted from the directive, although it is highly recommended that they wear masks when possible. Secondly, the face coverings are not required when six-foot social distancing is being observed, as it would be when children are sitting at their desks in the classroom, Paul said.
“I think that within those guidelines, we can teach kids to be responsible and wear face coverings during the times it is required and necessary,” said Paul. “Plus, parents should keep in mind that this is a temporary directive. It won’t last forever.”
New MVCEAB member, Jeff Proffitt, who is also a CCSD trustee candidate in the upcoming election, said that if there was ever a time when the eyes of the whole district were on Moapa Valley this is it. If the plans are approved, the MVCEAB and various SOTs should be prepared for the scrutiny to come, Proffitt said.
“There are some groups out there who don’t like (what you are doing) at all,” Proffitt said. “There is a small group; and I don’t know what their agenda is; but they want this to fail. So you must be unified as a community.”
Proffitt said that the time would come when a first case of COVID-19 will strike in a local school. “At that point, you have to be prepared with a plan and be able to just work your plan and stick to it,” he said.
“We need to continue to keep the spotlight on Moapa Valley,” Proffitt said. “That is really where it should be, because there is so much good here that should be shown as model to the rest of the district. And there are opportunities we will see if we get this right. Great things will happen.”
MVCEAB member Terry Holzer said that this made it even more important that parents and students alike are prepared to employ all of the recommended best health practices.
“We need to do all we can to stay healthy out there,” Holzer said. “That means teaching our kids the habit of washing hands, folks should not travelling to high risk areas, wearing face coverings and everyone take your vitamins! We need to help our kids to stay safe and keep them going to school.”
