By Amanda Nichols On Thursday, April 9, the Snowflake Unified School District Governing Board held a brief teleconference where only four people were present in the board room and the rest by phone. The board discussed how the district will move ahead with teaching students while they are required to remain in their homes due to the spread of the novel coronavirus. Superintendent Hollis Merrell gave a brief report on the next step in the district’s effort to make remote schooling easier for both students and teachers. He informed the board that information on the Remote School Learning Opportunity Plan had been emailed to each of them to review. “That will allow us to continue to get our funding and paying our teachers. He got that information from the school sites and then he put it together and submitted that just a few minutes ago,” Merrell said to the board. Concerns were raised among board members on maintaining a fair workload for students and teachers. Further discussed were the high schoolers that are relying on specific grades for the next step in their lives. While discussing the work that is sent home with the students, President Cory Johnson asked if students are getting graded on that work. “That is the million- dollar question right now, the biggest challenge, it’s touchy and we’re not sure how to address this issue. Overall, we’ve agreed with our principals and admin team that it would be really hard to fail a child because they don’t have the support at home to get something done. Statewide, based off of conference calls, most schools are doing the same thing and saying that we will give the opportunity to improve grades but, as long as you’re making an effort, we’re not going to fail you,” explained Superintendent Merrell. The board discussed doing more research on the matter but made no action as it was not an agenda item. The board agreed to look into what the high school is doing for students who are trying to maintain a 4.0 grade average for college. A positive report was presented by Business Manager Mark Ollerton on the submission of the audit for the 2019 fiscal year was briefly stated. The district received praise for a clean audit.
