By VERNON ROBISON
The Progress
Grant Bowler Elementary School in Logandale will be welcoming its youngest students back to a full, 5-day weekly schedule very soon.
Bowler Principal Shawna Jessen announced on Monday morning, Feb. 22, that the school’s pre-K through 2nd grade students will be starting a Monday thru Friday schedule beginning on Monday, Mar. 15.
“It is big news and we are so excited!” Jessen said. “And I have to say, I am tired!”
Jessen said that it took a full group effort from the School Organizational Team (SOT) and other school staffers to get the plans approved.
“Our strategy has been to stay positive,” Jessen said. “So after we were approved to go hybrid at the beginning of the school year we sent a formal thank-you letter to CCSD Superintendent Jesus Jara, just appreciating the opportunity we had to pilot the hybrid model. We also requested that, whenever the rest of the district went to hybrid, we might be considered for bringing students back full time.”
When the recent news came from CCSD saying that the younger grades throughout the district would be returning to a hybrid model on Mar. 1, the Bowler SOT was all ready to submit a detailed request to advance to full-time, Jessen said.
Jessen said that she was then invited to a meeting with various CCSD department heads to discuss concerns about returning the lower grades to a full day.
“We addressed all of those concerns one by one,” Jessen said. “By the end, our chief of staff was saying that this seemed like a no-brainer and was telling us to move forward tentatively with our plans until we got the final word to move.”
That word finally came on Monday morning.
Jessen said that the work is far from over. The school staff is currently working to move things around at the school to prepare. Certain classes are being relocated to larger classrooms to accommodate the number of kids. Teacher schedules are being altered to make things work. And a lot of work is going into making sure that the current safety protocols are being met.
“Just because we are going back to the old schedule for these grades doesn’t mean that everything can just go back to normal,” Jessen said.
She emphasized that the school would still be following the emergency procedures including six-foot social distancing and face mask requirements. In addition, no special events or field trips are being planned. And the school doors must still remain locked to visitors and volunteers.
Jessen praised the school’s teachers for their full support and willingness to come back to the classroom for the kids.
“Without them all being willing to come back, we would be in the same boat as the schools in Vegas have been,” Jessen said. “There would be absolutely no hope to go forward with this without them.”
Jessen said that the new schedule would be an added workload for the teachers.
“I know that it seems like it is no big deal, just going back to the old schedule from before,” Jessen said. “But there is a lot involved that is easy to overlook. These kids haven’t sat together in the same classroom yet this year. So in a way, it is like another 1st day of school on Mar. 15.”
“I just can’t say enough about these teachers and their willingness to take on the extra work because it is right for our kids!” Jessen added.
The higher grades 3-5 at Bowler will not be going to a full schedule at this time. Instead those classes will remain in their current hybrid mode, Jessen said.
Jessen said that there would be notices going out from teachers informing parents of the details of the change. In addition, changes to bus transportation routes would be sent out from the CCSD Transportation representative, she said.
