Superintendent Ron Moag said a recent masking policy for all students and staff will remain in place at all Three Rivers Community Schools (TRCS) buildings. At a Board of Education (BOE) work session Monday evening, Moag said state agencies like the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) continue to require them despite a Friday Michigan Supreme Court Decision pertaining to the legal legitimacy of pandemic-related Executive Orders from the Governor’s Office.
Last Friday’s Michigan Supreme Court decision nullified all of Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s Executive Orders pertaining to the pandemic since late April on grounds that they violated the state’s Constitution. Specifically, the ruling said Whitmer did not have authority to issue pandemic-related orders lasting beyond April 30, when a State of Emergency extended by the state legislature expired. For such orders to remain effective, the court said, further legislative approval would have been necessary.
Twelve members of the public submitted comments that were read aloud at Monday’s work session. All but three asked that BOE members cease requiring masks in schools in light of the court’s ruling. Those three comments addressed other issues. However, BOE member Linda Baker said it is important for the public to understand that the court’s ruling was on the Governor’s authority to make executive orders, rather than the content of those orders. It is still possible for pandemic restrictions to come through other channels.
In a news release responding to the court’s decision, Moag said, Governor Whitmer said alternate agencies will carry out parts of rules that were formerly covered by her office’s orders. Agencies like HHS have their own, separate authority to issue certain rules. Because of that authority, HHS has issued masking rules that echo some key parts of recent Executive Orders on masking.
An ordinance issued by Robert Gordon, Director of HHS, duplicates and takes the place of a requirement issued a few weeks ago in an Executive Order. Under that ordinance, for all students and staff in all grades, Moag said, masks will be required for all indoor and outdoor gathering while in school. Moag said TRCS will be issuing an email “by noon” on Tuesday detailing what that means with specifics on masking rules will pan out under the HHS directive.
TRCS Receives Donation of CPR Kit
Margo Tramel, Youth Market Director for Southwest Michigan with the American Heart Association (AHA) appeared at Monday’s work session to make a presentation to TRCS administrators and BOE members. Through a donation by Bandeen Orthodontics, TRCS is receiving donation of a cardio-pulmonary resuscitation (CPR) teaching kit. The kit will enable the schools to train 10 to 20 students at a time.
Tramel said new laws enacted with the 2017-2018 school year require schools to train students in CPR. Requirements call for schools to teach a hands-only variation of the procedure that does not require mouth contact. Tramel said the law responds to the fact that 90 percent of people who suffer from cardiac arrest away from a hospital do not survive, but CPR can double or triple a person’s chances of survival.
The donation came amid a larger investment in COVID protection measures by AHA and its partners. Tramel said the kit would “hopefully be a benefit to you and the training of your students.” Moag thanked Tramel and Bandeen Orthodontics for the CPR kit’s donation.
Pandemic Measures, Virtual Learning Continue to Evolve
Curriculum Director Nikki Nash said enrollment in the TRCS all-virtual option’s online education platform, Lincoln Learning, is down to 404 after an initial enrollment of 708 in late August. Nash said approximately 243 students returned to face-to-face or hybrid instruction and another 61 left the district entirely. Of those who left, 30 went to other school districts, 17 went to homeschooling, one moved out of state, and one transferred to a non-public school. The remaining 12 left for unknown dispositions, Nash said.
BOE member Kevin Hamilton said that at the September meeting, he asked if it would be possible to get a pass/fail rate report for the Lincoln Learning platform. He repeated and clarified his intent Monday, but Nash said the first official grade report did not come out until October 2. She said mentors are tracking grades, and there is not a weekly report that administrators can pull from the PowerSchool tracking platform. Hamilton asked if that meant running grades were not available to parents, but Nash said parents can see their students grades and process on a daily basis.
Anne Riopel, also a BOE member, asked if students who did not continue with the Lincoln Learning platform had not been in contact with a mentor, and asked whether students or mentors were responsible for making primary contact. Nash said that “works both ways,” but the mentor or another staff member involved in the student’s academic progress has to have reached out before TRCS decides that a student has not been participating.
TRCS policy dictates that if a student is a no-show during roll calls for two weeks, and there is no response to attempts to contact the family by telephone or through in-person visits, that student is removed from enrollment at TRCS. This policy applies to both face-to-face attendees and those using virtual options, Nash said.
With respect to ensuring that parents and students know how to participate in the online platforms in a way that ensures students and their work are accounted for properly, Nash said that once she or other administrators are able to review the systems with the parents, they generally are able to navigate them successfully.
There remains some vocal criticism of the Lincoln Learning platform from some TRCS parents. In public comments Monday, two parents took issue with it. One said, “thank you for teaching my kids what it’s like to work a job from nine to five with overtime. You took something they liked,” he said, and ruined it. He said he felt the district should have focused on building a solution “for the students” rather than what was convenient for its leadership.
Another parent said she was unhappy with the platform’s unresponsiveness and accused district leadership using the platform to make parents “give up” and return their children to face-to-face attendance. Her child’s mentor, on the other hand, “is great.”
In previous conversations about the platform, Moag, Nash, and other TRCS leaders said the platform was necessary for an all-virtual option in order to remove unusual workload stressors from teachers who would be attempting to teach face-to-face and hybrid classes amid other pandemic restrictions.
Budget Amendment Forthcoming
Finance Director Blair Brindley said her office is working to put together a budget amendment in order to address items that were left with open or hypothetical figures when the current-year budget was adopted earlier in 2020. Funding uncertainties due to the pandemic at the time meant adopting a budget without certain revenue figures being definite.
However, as state revenues have become clearer, Brindley said her office is ready to prepare an amendment or amendments that address those earlier uncertainties. In order to focus on preparing the changes, Blair’s staff have temporarily put work on TRCS’s annual audit aside. The state has extended the audit’s submission deadline to December 1, one month later than it is normally scheduled.
Meanwhile, increased budgetary allowances from the state “will allow us more grace with our enrollment drop” and other situations that relate to the pandemic, Brindley said. Despite the state’s budget increases, Brindley said she will advise a cautious approach to budgeting going forward, since the pandemic may involve “several years of recovery.”
Moag commended Brindley and her staff, including the foodservice department, for handling the myriad of challenges that have come from the pandemic. Brindley’s staff have been busy, with “kids still getting fed, and then you throw on top audit time and the state budget changes,” Moag said. “I congratulate Blair and her team.”
Policy Changes to be Read at Next Meeting
A first reading of changes to TRCS policies is scheduled for the next regular BOE meeting on October 19. The updates come in response to changes in language recommendations from Neola, which is a national outfit that advises school boards on policy. The updates will include changes to TRCS policies on threatening behavior toward staff members, emergency removal, suspension, and expulsion of students, due process rights, and facility security.
Riopel asked if the changes to the suspension and expulsion policy mean such actions will no longer come before the board. Moag said that the requirement to do so has not change. Riopel said that was not clear from what she read. Moag said there was time for board members to submit their own comments or proposed changes in time for them to go before the TRCS Policy Committee. “We have the ability to make those adjustments,” he said.
Hamilton also asked for clarification on the suspension policy. He said, “is it still the case that when a student or parent appeals a suspension, student may be in school until appeal process is up?” Moag said as long as there is no safety concern, the student would remain in school through the appeals process. “We do a threat assessment,” Moag said. “If a student is deemed a threat they will still be out during appeal.” Hamilton suggested the policy language should specify that procedure. Moag said he would review the relevant language.
COVID Plan Modified
BOE members approved a revision of the TRCS COVID-19 Preparedness and Response Plan. The revision removes language that previously required persons to self-quarantine for 14 days following air travel. Updated CDC guidelines no longer contain any such requirements.
Dave Vago is a writer and columnist for Watershed Voice. A Philadelphia native with roots in Three Rivers, Vago is a planning consultant to history and community development organizations and is the former Executive Director of the Three Rivers DDA/Main Street program.
