PENDLETON —It is not completely back to pre-pandemic ways, but South Madison Community School Corporation’s updated COVID-19 Operation Plan is the closest thing to it since the world-altering virus arrived in 2020.
At the SMCSC Board of School Trustees meeting on Thursday, March 3, the board approved changes recommended by Superintendent Mark Hall.
The major changes included:
• Face coverings will be optional in all schools regardless of positivity rate.
• All schools will operate on a traditional schedule regardless of the positivity rate.
• Face coverings will be optional on school buses.
• Schools will no longer conduct contact tracing or quarantine students.
• Parents will be notified of potential student exposures to COVID-19.
• Visitor restrictions will be relaxed.
Hall said the modifications were made based on recent changes to the Indiana Department of Health COVID-19 Control Measures and the federal mandate concerning public transportation.
“I was very pleased when I read through (the updated document). I thought it was very thorough and I was glad to see the changes,” board member Kaye Wolverton said prior to the seven-member board’s vote “I think it’s a really good program.”
The board voted unanimously to approve the changes.
As soon as the last vote was cast, many in attendance, which included parents and other relatives of children in the school system, loudly cheered the decision.
Hall said the changes will go in to effect immediately.
“We’re getting really, really close,” Hall said of attaining pre-pandemic operation standards. “We are slowly rolling back the restrictions, like what we did tonight. Masks are optional, no contact tracing and we’re going to try to get people back in our school.
“We’re not to the point where we’re completely back to the way it was in 2020, but we’re getting there. I feel like we all see the light at the tunnel. I think we could be there by the start of next school year as long as things continue to progress like they have.”
Parental concerns
In the ‘Communication from the public’ section of the meeting, a number of parents voiced concerns about the board’s transparency, unanswered e-mails as well as why the board was not live-streaming its meetings.
One parent stated that if the Pendleton Town Council can live stream, the school board should be able to, too.
Hall said the board has discussed live-streaming but there are some things they have to work through before that happens, including complying with FERPA (Family Education Rights and Privacy Act) laws.
“We understand other districts do it and we’re working through that and how we balance transparency and not disclosing things that, as a school district, that you are not supposed to disclose,” Hall added.
He echoed an analogy board member Buck Evans used when responding to some of the parents concerns.
“We’re not against (live-streaming) necessarily,” Hall said. “Like (Evans) said, school districts are like an air-craft carrier, we’re not speed boats. We do react, but it’s not often as fast as people like, but that’s also what keeps your organization stable.”
