Salem Community High School Superintendent Dr. Brad Detering says the school has been able to stay open for in-student learning following several close calls with positive cases for COVID-19.
He updated the school board Monday night. Detering says there are currently 59 students and two staff on quarantine along with 143 students who have selected full remote learning.
“Despite the fact, that obviously the numbers in the community and the county continue to increase; and our quarantine list has increased in the last two weeks, not to the point that we feel like we need to go full remote, because we’ve got kids that are coming back from full remote for 4 days because there are some students that just need to be here. That minute that we do shutdown and go full remote, that’s going to be difficult for them.”
Detering says they have relaxed some of the restrictions on going to full remote learning.
“Whereas early on we basically said you had to make the decision for the first quarter and go that route. We are a lot more fluid at the moment. I mean, we don’t want someone going in and out, in and out, in and out; but there is nothing that says if someone called up and said we are going to go remote for two weeks, we would work with that too.”
Detering says while having only half the student body attending two days a week has allowed for social distancing, it is not perfect and there are some classrooms where that is not possible. As a result, there have been a few students quarantined as a result of close contact to positive cases at the school. Detering notes hallway traffic is not too crowded because of the reduced number of students each day.
Detering says he cannot say enough about the work of school nurse Michelle Blomberg in keeping track of positive and quarantined students.
The board was told a transitional math class is being added to the curriculum for next year. The class is being mandated by the state to be offered for students who are on a tech career path. Right now, some of those students are required to take a no credit math class at college because they did not have a fourth year of math at high school. The class is aimed at problem solving.
The board approved a tentative tax levy that is 4.9-percent higher than this year’s tax collections. Detering says it is more likely they will receive a 3.6-percent increase based on the consumer price index and increased property valuation in the district. He does not anticipate the increased levy to change the school’s tax rate used to determine property tax bills.
The board named Ivy Balla as Scholar Bowl Coach and Lauren Hays Brown as Assistant Bowling Coach. Both sports will still be offered during the winter months despite COVID-19.
