By John Estridge
Union County/College Corner Joint School District Superintendent Aron Borowiak said while two students and two staff members have tested positive for COVID-19 since the start of school, the school system’s reentry program is going smoothly.
He said it is actually beyond the reentry plan at this time, as school has been in session for about a month.
“Since we’ve been in school, we have had two student cases and two staff cases that tested positive and have gone through quarantine,” Borowiak said. “We’ve been very fortunate.”
According to Borowiak, Union County High School Athletics Director Ryan Overholt has been very impressed with the Union County families and students at athletic events, as they social distance and wear masks.
Borowiak said visitors to the schools have also commented on the positive way the students are handling the situation as all the students are abiding by the new rules. Earlier in the meeting, Union County High School Principal Connie Rosenberger stated the people who were in school to take annual student photos remarked how well acting the student body was and how the students were careful about following the COVID-19 protocol.
And Borowiak spoke to that facet of the situation. He said, sometimes in high school, the students have more of a bent to express a renegade spirit, but the high school students have not done that. He said all the principals have been very happy with the students’ actions from the elementary school level, through the middle school to the high school.
He said superintendents from across the state have said there are bumps with each of their reentry plans amidst this pandemic.
“It’s a whole different ballgame in how we’re running schools,” he said.
Borowiak said all of the principals are showing great leadership. The staffs at every school are also doing well. Custodians have been busy with keeping everything as sanitary as possible. And the nurses have been busy on the phone. It has been a true team effort, a true community effort.
He also thanked the board for voting for the reentry plan. And said several parents have also voiced gratitude about that.
Board member Darrell Harvey asked about the plan for bringing kindergarten students, who have been virtual, back into the classroom when that is an option.
“They come back to two different buildings,” Harvey asked.
Borowiak said the number of kindergarten students went up at both College Corner and Brookville elementary schools. Another kindergarten teacher was hired at College Corner and there is a posting for a kindergarten teacher at LES. He said there are enough kindergarten students at each school to have three classes, which is currently the case at College Corner. One of the three teachers at College Corner is handling the virtual kindergarten students.
Those students, who are learning via the virtual method, will remain that way at least through the semester, he said. When the number of virtual kindergarten students fall off, then that teacher assigned to the virtual kindergarten students will go back to in-person teaching.
After further questioning from Harvey, Borowiak said the semester is not an etched-in-stone type of endpoint. He said parents could move their children from virtual learning to in-school learning at the end of nine weeks.
“If a family really wants to come back, and we have a space in the classroom, we’ll take them back,” Borowiak said. “We might get to a place where we don’t have any more space, and we will have to tell them they will have to finish virtual until the end of semester, then, we will bring you (students) back after semester.”
Borowiak then talked about what may happen after the end of the first semester.
“What we’re going to have to do at semester is there is going to be some division of some of those students,” Borowiak said.
Board member Jessica Jones was attending the meeting from a remote location via Zoom and was typing in her comments, which were then read aloud by FCCSC Board of Trustees President Mary Eversole.
Jones asked about first grade at College Corner Union School.
“We have a first grade teaching position posted,” Borowiak said.
There is a candidate for the position who is teaching secondary education at another school corporation, but would rather teach at the elementary level. That person is working toward getting their license to teach, Borowiak said.
“This person has been in the classroom for a couple years on an emergency permit so this person has a lot of in-classroom experience, and they’re finishing their coursework at the same time,” Borowiak said.
Also, it is under consideration to put a licensed aide in the classroom with the person in question, Borowiak said.
“We haven’t closed the deal yet, but we’ve interviewed this person and feel very positive about it,” Borowiak said.