By L. Parsons The Winslow Unified School District Governing Board met twice last week. The meeting held on Tuesday was an executive session in which personnel matters were discussed. No public comment has been made as to the action taken or the specifics of the meeting. The meeting held on Wednesday was the regularly scheduled meeting and featured reports from each of the school site principals. Bonnie Brennan Elementary school acting principal Steve Brodt said, “Our enrollment is very high. In fact, we are kind of terrified if everyone comes back. We won’t have the area to social distance properly.” Teacher to student ratios, according to past statements by Superintendent Kathyrn Zanin were said to be at 15:1 at the highest. Brodt explained, that is not the case at Bonnie Brennan. “Our third grade will be at a 21:1 with six teachers and fourth grade will be at 22:1 with six teachers. If we have to go with five, it will be higher.” Brodt is concerned because 80 percent of Bonnie Brennan families have not expressed a commitment to either online schooling or returning to in person. “We have about 10 percent who say they will show up and 10 percent that won’t. We are really waiting for a solid open date so we can tell parents what to expect.” Board member Joey Harnett asked, “Do we have an update on the social distancing dividers?” Referring to plastic dividers that are to be installed before in-person learning can begin. Zanin replied that she did not. Dr. James Donner, Winslow High School principal, gave the update for the high school. “We have a total enrollment of 639 students. Of those, 299 have selected the fully online pathway. The status of the high school is rather upbeat and we are embracing technology. Teachers are telling me that attendance has been pretty good.” Principal Amber Martinez of Jefferson Elementary School told the board that 135 of the first and second graders will remain online, 72 will return to in person, 32 families are unsure, some have not been contacted and 18 students have withdrawn from the school. Jefferson Elementary School was not a part of the first wave of laptops provided to students. Martinez said, “We are on paper based materials. Next week we will start the standards for their grade levels. We don’t know when the laptops will be available for our grade levels, so our teachers are able to take this time to learn and get tips from the other elementary school teachers on online teaching.” Information technology director Steve Henling said, “We are hoping to hear back about the Chromebooks on Monday (Aug. 10). If we can’t get them soon, we are prepared to hand out 300 Dell laptops.” Winslow Junior High School Principal Deb Lopez said, “We asked our families to choose whether they would stay online or come back in to school once the green light is given. About 27 percent of eighth graders will return to school and 20 percent of our seventh graders.” Some students have yet to make a decision or have not been able to be reached. This model will be used at both WJHS and WHS. Students are asked to stay with online learning or commit to returning to traditional schooling. Governor Doug Ducey has set Aug.17 as the target date for returning to school. His office released benchmarks last week that outline exactly what each county needs to do in order to open schools to students. Those metrics set forth by the Arizona Department of Health Services will be considered by the superintendent and governing board according to Board President Sharon Greenwood. She responded as such to a written question during the call to the public section of the meeting. Those benchmarks include the number of COVID-19 cases in the area, the percentage of positive tests and the percentage of hospitalizations. Currently, according to the AzDHS website at www.azdhs.gov, none of the state’s 15 counties have met all three of those benchmarks. Concern is community wide and a petition has been circulated asking for the governing board and superintendent to consider moving the in-person start date to after the first quarter. Nearly 200 signatures have been gathered as of press time. In other business, the governing board: * Approved the hiring of Veronica Cortez as a high needs paraprofessional at Washington Elementary School. * Approved the resignation of Rachel Butler as a high needs paraprofessional at Washington Elementary School. * Approved the transfer of Chris Atwood from full time gifted and talented education teacher to fourth grade teacher and part time GATE teacher. * Approved extra duty stipends for Chris Atwood while teaching fourth grade and Steve Brodt as acting principal for 12 weeks. * Ratified vouchers in a routine procedure that allows the board to submit vouchers to the county superintendent between board meetings. The next meeting of the WUSD governing board will be at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, Aug. 19, in the Performing Arts Center, located at 600 E. Cherry St.
