By L. Parsons The Winslow City Council met last week and during that meeting heard from Winslow Unified School District Superintendent Kathryn Zanin on the reopening of public schools. “We began with the leadership team of the district. From there we rolled it out to tribal leaders and business leaders, and then to the teachers. They are the ones that put the rubber to the road. Then we presented it to the parents last week. All questions that were asked were answered. Every decision that we made has been in the best interest of our children,” she stated. She then noted that schools are reopening on Aug. 3 with distance learning. “Our littlest– kindergarten, first and second grade–will be packets. Teachers will be calling and interacting with families with internet connections. We also have 1,000 computers and another 1,000 coming in on order so all of our students will have a one-to-one.” Zannin said that on Aug. 17, dependent upon Arizona Health Department’s decision, there will be three choices for students in regards to school enrollment but named just two. “You can be at home online or you can come in person.” Zanin also noted that every employee of the district will be tested for COVID-19 before returning to work. Students and teachers will also have their temperatures taken twice a day, once in person learning begins. She mentioned 99.5 degrees as the definition of a “low grade temperature,” though registration forms given to families by the district define a fever as 100.4 degrees. “If your child or adult has a temperature, they will be sent to the health technician’s office where they will do some further diagnosis and then from there the child will either be sent home, or the employee will be sent home or, they either have to have a negative test result from COVID-19 or they need to have symptom free for at least three days.” Masks will be required to be worn by students and staff throughout district facilities. “We know that if everyone’s wearing a mask, plus we put extra precautions of six feet social distancing, plus we purchased 2,500 little plastic cubicles for students to have at their desks, that we will be minimizing the spread of the COVID.” Zanin is set on not cancelling athletics at the district. She said, “Every 15 minutes all the high touch areas will be cleaned and sanitize. From there then, we look at athletics. We are big supporters and are following the AIA (Arizona Interscholastic Association) guidelines. Right now they are saying that fall sports are projected for Sept. 7. What we are planning is a moving target. But the keys are in place.” Crisp asked, “If a kid has a fever or is showing symptoms, will their siblings also be sent home?” Zanin responded, “Again, depending upon the situation. Depending upon how close proximity they were, they will probably also be sent home. If that child comes back with a positive COVID, we will send out a very generic letter letting families know that there has been a positive test.” Councilman Rickey Jackson asked if there was a plan in place in case of an increase in infection rate at the school sites. She answered, “Again, we are working on the matrix from the health department and if we do see an increase, we will look at who all is involved and where their interactions are and then go from there. The last thing we want to do is send a whole class or a bunch of teachers home.” McCauley asked for answers as well. He said, “You mentioned you didn’t want to send students or teachers home on quarantine, but if you have a student or teacher that is positive, and they have been in the classroom, wouldn’t CDC guidelines require them to go home?” Zanin said, “Not necessarily, … if a teacher comes in under COVID, first of all if they are sick, they shouldn’t be coming in. Second, if they are running a temperature, which is one of the first indications of the COVID, if they are coughing and sneezing, if they are short of breath, those are pretty good indications before they even reach the classroom with children that they shouldn’t be there. Again, teachers are being told to stay home. So, to say that I would never send a person home with COVID, that’s inaccurate, because we would send home a teacher if they were COVID. Would we quarantine the whole class? Not necessarily. If I’m a teacher and I’m up at the front of the room, or if there is a student that sits at the back of the class and never has contact with me, which could be the case. We take it on a case by case basis.” McCauley brought up the topic of a ‘disclaimer,’ that will be required to be signed for students to attend WUSD. “One question is, does this leave the district to not be held responsible? How does this waiver restore or maintain confidence with stakeholders? Does this release the district from the required mitigation plans and moral responsibility to students because we do not want to see inequities or the unequal distribution of educational resources?” She responded, “First of all, the waiver that was sent out was not supposed to be sent out. What was supposed to be sent with the high school students was an acknowledgment that if you are going to send your child to school, again, there are things that are outside of our control. We are not asking you to sign away your rights. We will always take every precaution we need to to keep students safe. We have purchased refillable water bottles and classrooms disinfected but there is a letter of acknowledgment that we want to be transparent with you. No matter where you go in this city, you risk COVID. For you to automatically assume if your child comes home sick that it came from the school, again, you can’t prove that. If you have the luxury of being able to keep your child at home, great. If you are a parent who has to bring your child to school, we want you to understand that there are conditions with COVID that go along with that.” Zanin then said that masks were not going to be put in policy. “Who is to say that six months down the road, masks are no longer necessary? Now we are stuck with a policy in the direct code. However, in the same response, she said, “Part of what students need to adhere to in each of the schools is wearing a face mask. If your child cannot wear a face mask, if you don’t want to wear a face mask, that may necessitate you staying home. All staff have to wear face masks. We are mandating in the dress code, that you have to wear a mask.”
