ML school board hears plans for 6-12 in-person classes

MEDICAL LAKE — Call it a COVID-rich environment at the Jan. 26 Medical Lake School Board meeting.

No, there had not been an actual outbreak amongst the board — minus the absent Laura Parsons — nor staff. It’s just the agenda had a natural COVID color to it from top to bottom.

That would be a natural considering the district’s middle and high school students went back to in-person classroom instruction Monday, Feb. 1. It’s the first time that’s happened on a large scale since students walked out the door March 13 of last year.

“We’ve had all K through five students in in-person opportunities, either hybrid or five days a week (previously),” Kim Headrick, the district’s Director of Teaching and Learning said. “We’re excited about that, come Monday, we’re going to kind of round it out and add in six through 12.”

The high school model is broken into two primary in-person groups called cohorts A and B, two days a week. Each middle and high school Cohort has a maximum of 15 students. Those numbers are dictated by the 6-foot rule.

Cohort A, composed of students with last names from A-K attends Mondays and Wednesdays. Cohort B with last names L-Z is on campus Tuesdays and Thursdays. All students are virtual on Fridays. A group called Connect-Plus does virtual five days a week.

Headrick gave kudos to elementary school leaders who helped pioneer some of the criteria for returning students to class just weeks short of a year from when they last were inside the walls.

“I think the biggest difference obviously is just in the fact that this will be a full hybrid,” Headrick said.

The distance requirement will be somewhat easier to manage considering Medical Lake, for whatever reasons, has lost roughly $1.3 million from its projected budget due to lost enrollment in the past year. That’s 130 students, 50 from kindergarten.

The district’s chief financial officer, Chad Moss, outlined how both the state and federal government are trying to assist districts in backfilling those dollars. Not much is certain at this point and many questions surround $900 million in federal dollars for K-12 schools.

“The initial dollar amount that is out there on that table from OSPI (Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction) is around $700,000,” Moss said.

Superintendent Tim Ames dovetailed somewhat on the subject of OSPI money, noting that groups head, Chris Reykdal, had the idea to suggest two separate funding proposals to the Washington state Legislature.

One to address both transportation and enrollment funding and replace earlier legislation that lawmakers crafted and then pulled off the table.

With its long-standing close ties to Fairchild Air Force Base, Ames outlined some work it and the district have been conducting to help with vaccinations, primarily for teachers. Ames also spoke of some work with the state’s health department that could help ease the transition between distance to in-person learning.

Ames said the district applied for a grant that could help initiate rapid testing inside school buildings, primarily the high school where simple self-tests can be conducted.

“Students can test themselves; you don’t need a nurse to watch them,” Ames explained. “You need an observer, though,” for a result that can be had in as little as 15 minutes. Such tests would only be administered to students showing one of two COVID symptoms.

“So I put our names in today and we’ll see what happens,” Ames said.

In the effort of trying to resume traditional operation, among early discussions at the meeting came explanations of, and first readings for, board policies pertaining to Immunizations and Life-Threatening Health Conditions, as well as Family Medical and Maternity Leave.

– Paul Delaney is a retired former Free Press Publishing reporter and can be reached at [email protected].