by VERNON ROBISON
The Progress
Schools in Moapa Valley are making final plans to return to face-to-face instruction for students on a five-day-per-week schedule for the first time since last March. This schedule could be in effect as early as Monday, Mar. 15.
The news of this development was announced by School Board Trustee Katie Williams during a meeting of the Moapa Valley Community Education Advisory Board (MVCEAB) held on Saturday, Feb. 27 over an online platform.
“Schools out in Moapa Valley will be opening full-time and will be going back to five days (per week),” Williams told the MVCEAB. “So before you guys go to spring break you will be opening up full time again.”
Earlier in the week, Clark County School District (CCSD)Superintendent Jesus Jara made the announcement that schools throughout the district, which are currently in all-online instruction, will be opening for hybrid model learning. Jara set forth a timeline for this to be implemented. Pre-Kindergarten through Grade 3 return to hybrid this week on March 1; grades 6, 9 and 12 return on March 22; and grades 7, 8, 10 and 11 come back to a hybrid model on April 6. In addition, Pre-K through Grade 5 are scheduled to return to five-day school weeks on April 6.
But Moapa Valley school principals, who have been running a hybrid model at their schools since August, have asked for more as the rest of the district moves forward with hybrid. They all submitted plans to CCSD administrators that would bring kids back to more face-to-face time in school.
In Saturday’s MVCEAB meeting, Williams admitted that the news was still preliminary. “I don’t think that they have even announced this yet, so I am probably, kind of, just doing that now,” Williams said.
Moapa Valley High School principal Hal Mortensen and Mack Lyon Middle School principal Ken Paul both confirmed, after Williams announcement, that they had been in meetings with CCSD central administrators last week and that they had been assured that the new schedule was being approved.
“I was kind of holding onto this news because it literally just happened yesterday,” Paul said on Saturday. “But we were looking at Mar. 15 which is a week later than the natural (quarter) break.”
Mortensen said that he had also sat in a similar meeting regarding return of MVHS to a full schedule. “I wasn’t allowed to share if we have been approved or not because we haven’t technically,” Mortensen said. “But it is likely that we will and I am feeling very confident about it. There is one more meeting next week, so I hope by the middle of the week we will receive some final good news.”
The plan for both schools would be to continue with the same basic daily schedule of classes. Lyon would maintain its same four class periods per day and MVHS would still continue with the three periods it has been running each day, with both blue and gold day schedules. But in both schools, the separate A and B Cohorts would be eliminated. All students would return back to their current class schedules for five days each week instead of only two.
Mortensen said that elective classes that are currently all-online classes; including subjects like Band, P.E., Health and others; will continue as online classes.
Mortensen said the approval of the plans was very close to a sure thing. “While it hasn’t gotten final approval, I am feeling 99.9 percent positive about it,” he said.
On Monday, Feb. 22, Grant Bowler Elementary principal Shawna Jessen was given the green light to take her school’s Pre-K to grade 2 classes to a full 5-day schedule beginning Monday, Mar. 1. But at the MVCEAB meeting, Bowler Assistant Principal Mitch Ozaki annoounced that this schedule was on track to extend to the upper grades at the school as well.
“We do have a plan and we have been meeting with the district leadership as well,” Ozaki said. “We are probably going to go face-to-face on Mar. 15. The last hurdle we have is to deal with transportation and we have a meeting on Tuesday next waeek to work through that.”
MVCEAB Chairwoman Wendy Mulcock became emotional when she heard the news. She emphasized that the board and the community had spent more than a year now pushing the district to bring kids back in this way. Mulcock expressed deep gratitude to Williams for her being a strong advocate for local schools in this matter.
“Thank you very much, Katie, for pushing and pushing and pushing for us!” Mulcock said. “We can’t do that on our own. We scream and we yell and we complain to the central district and it just feels like it is all floating into the air and not mattering at all. So we really appreciate someone hearing us and someone who can make things happen for our kids.”
Williams said that Virgin Valley schools would not be far behind Moapa Valley in advancing to a five-day schedule. The Virgin Valley schools have been operating with an all-online model since the beginning of the school year. But those schools are set to begin a hybrid model within the next week.
Williams explained that there is a waiting period mandated before a hybrid model school can be advanced to a full schedule. This period of time would apply to Virgin Valley schools, she said.
“The Governor basically stated that you have to operate 20 days in a hybrid model before you can open up full-time,” Williams said. “Since you guys in Moapa Valley have been open since August you are ready to go full-time. So it will take Virgin Valley just a bit longer. ”
“What that will look like on getting approval on an individual school basis I don’t know,” Williams added. But I am still watching and I’m still involved.”
