March 16, 2020 at 9:00 AM - SAA Weekly Meeting: COVID-19

Rationale: 
                              Communication
Effort          Respect             Responsibility        Belief

One Good Thing!       
New Book:  The Coffee Bean (Jon Gordon)

MEETING AGENDA AND DISCUSSION TOPICS:  This meeting included all district administrators and school nurses.

1.  Student/Parent Communication:  Discussion on the importance of the message we send out to our students and parents at the end of the day today.  There is a scheduled ZOOM meeting with East Central Health and area schools at 1:00 today.  Following this meeting, I will be getting  information out  to each school to be sent home at the end of the day.  While our message needs to be clear, HOW we do this is just as important.

2.  Parent-Teacher Conferences:  Principals need to determine the list of parents who attended parent-teacher conferences and received the COVID-19 Brochure.  For those parents not in attendance, we need to make sure in addition to the letter, that a brochure goes home to ensure that parents have the information to make healthy choices in their homes and their travel.

3.  Special Education/Students with compromised health:  The school nurses are compiling a list of students with compromising health conditions.  Parents of these students will be notified that if they choose to keep their child at home, we will work with them to ensure that we provide support for their education as well as any concerns around truancy they may incur.

4.  Employees with compromised health/age: While this is a HIPPA protection, building principals and school nurses will ask staff who have a compromised health condition or age concern to visit with them about a possible self-quarantine to protect their health.  

5.  Food Service Program:  We are filing an application today with the department of education to allow us to continue a food service program in the case of a school shutdown.  How this program will work or the extent of service will be determined by NDE and our food service program.
 
6.  Confirm current employee records with NDE:  I met with the technology team and they will be working with you to make sure our employee list on the NDE Portal is current.  This needs to be done by 12:00 noon today.  In addition, the Technology Department is working with Dr. Hoesing to prepare the options for best ways to communicate with our student, parents, and community patrons.  At this time, we believe it will be a combination of electronic messaging along with hard-copies of vital information for students and their families.  

7.  Travel:  If you have students or staff that traveled out of state over the spring break, we need to have them self-report to see if they are included in the self-quarantine requirement. 

8.  School Hours and Assessments:  Concerns expressed about how school hours, assessments, etc... are affected by possible school closures.  The Dr. Bloomstedt, Education Commissioner, stated that they were not able to dismiss this concern, however, it is not the top priority in comparison to health related decisions at this time.

9.  Field House:  Until further notice, the field house is closed outside of school hours. 

10. Administrators in Buildings:  Principals are asked to stay in their buildings to make sure they are available to questions from staff.  We may need to host some district level meetings, but, it possible these may also be  held over ZOOM so that they can stay in their buildings.

11.  Staff Leave and Payroll Information:  All payroll will continue as normal for the March 20th pay period.  I received a contract addendum from SEA for the board to consider for adoption that includes both staff leave and payroll concerns.  I have forwarded this addendum to our board negotiations team and on to legal council for their advice.  If accepted, I believe this should be expanded from certified employees to all district employees.

12.  NSAA Activities:  We just received the following information from NSAA on spring activities:
Effective Monday, March 16 all NSAA activity practices are suspended until Monday, March 30 and all NSAA activity competitions are suspended until Thursday, April 2.  These suspensions may be extended should the conditions warrant.  Member schools and student-participants are expected to adhere to the NSAA Constitution & Bylaws and activity manuals during this time.  As more information becomes available, official updates will be posted on the NSAA website and the NSAA social media platforms.


*  As information becomes available or changes, I will continue to add to this platform as a central way for us to communicate about pertinent topics of concern.  Thanks,  Dr. Hoesing