By L. Parsons The Winslow Unified School District Governing Board met last week with the announcement that the district would be moving the kindergarten program to Jefferson Elementary School. Previously, the grade level was located at Bonnie Brennan Elementary. With the move, the kindergarten students will join first and second graders at Jefferson. This change will take place beginning with the 2021-22 school year. Superintendent Kathryn Zanin said, “Everyone is ecstatic about the move over to Jefferson. It’s a really good progress.” Later in the meeting, Zanin addressed a concern that has had staff members as well as district stakeholders asking questions. She said, “COVID has hit Bonnie Brennan. We did ask our third grade to go online for a couple of weeks so whatever illness is going through the third grade gets out. We asked a fourth grade class to move online until Feb. 8 because children are getting sick. We want to take and be overly cautious so we have everything in place for the protection of our children.” In a letter to parents dated the next day, Bonnie Brennan Principal Larissa Richards explained that the entire third and fourth grades at Bonnie Brennan would be conducting classes remotely until Feb. 8. She said, “Within the time frame of Jan. 21 to 28, multiple COVID-19 cases were identified in the grade level. Having students learn from home is a proactive step to ensure the health and safety of all staff and students. “We understand this information may cause concern and are prepared to support you and your family in any way you feel is best. All classrooms are cleaned on a regular basis as well as extra attention is paid to our high touch surfaces. All district appointed COVID-19 protocols such as temperature taking and non-mixing of classrooms remains in place.” Zanin then discussed COVID-19 vaccines and protocols as they pertain to WUSD staff. She said, “Vaccinations as you know are kind of short. If people are needing a second dose, register at the clinic.” The clinic is the Little Colorado Physician’s Office and can be reached at (928) 289-3396. Zanin continued, “Our whole goal is to bring unity and clarity and understanding to our district. There are a lot of misconceptions and people not really understanding how and when they need to report when they have COVID. We are sending out a letter to the entire staff tomorrow. What it does is lets employees know, to help support them in these unprecedented times, these are the steps we would like them to take when they have symptoms. This is to help keep us in compliance and having the documentation that we need because we will be audited by the state at some point. This tells them what to do if they are in receipt of a negative test, if they are in receipt of a positive test, and then finally, someone in the home has positive COVID test results, what do we do.” A copy of the letter was not received by WUSD as of press time. Zannin explained that the Arizona Department of Health Services have changed how long people are to be quarantined when it’s in a home and under specific guidance. “A quarantine of a minimum of 10 days without testing and if no symptoms have been reported during daily monitoring. Normally what we have been telling our employees is after the 10 days, you have to go another 14 days, AZDHS is saying no you don’t have to do that, you can come back to work after the 10 days. This allows our employees to get back to work. As you know, our employees that are in quarantine are not being paid.” Beginning in March 2020, WUSD began exploring ways to best serve its students. Options for online or virtual learning as well as in-person instruction exist at all grade levels. However, according to a previous statement made by Zanin, teachers and staff have not been permitted to work from home. Zanin has cited the need for the physical buildings to be open to students as well as teacher workspaces. Meaning, some instructors do not have a suitable place from which to broadcast their lessons. In last week’s meeting, Zanin said, “We are also in the process of exploring and researching the idea of when it might be possible and plausible for our employees to work from home if it is available but again the administrative leadership team is looking at the benefits and impacts overall to the district. We will be coming out with something in that nature probably within the next week or two.” In other business, the governing board: * Was introduced to Sarka White, Human Resources Director for the district. * Recognized employees of the months of August through December as well as administrators and substitute teachers of the first and second quarter. Those recognized were Elaine Larse, Taylor Mills, Deb Lopez, Misty Benham, Luis Petet, Sharon Pugh, Shirley Lomeli, Zachary Pollard, Randy Fallaha, Lani Leonard, Loretta Chischilly, Heidi Boyter, Mary Scarborough and Sharon Vasquez. * Accepted a donation of $21 to Bonnie Brennan Elementary School through Box Tops for Education. * Approved the hiring of Atalaya Lucero as a paraprofessional at Bonnie Brennan; and Stephanie Westover, Susan Patlak, Madison Lymer and Beatrice Lucero as emergency substitute teachers. * Accepted the resignation of Shanae Canales and Jayme Polston, both paraprofessionals at Jefferson Elementary School. * Accepted the retirement of Beatrice Sanchez, a custodian with 24 years of service to the district. * Approved sponsor stipends for Career and Technical Education instructors including Natalie Barrios, Lisa Foster, Daniel Tafoya, Afton Foster, Quentin Hayes and Lisa Long. * Approved an agreement between Navajo County Community College District and WUSD to continue dual enrollment opportunities in a routine annual procedure. * Heard the financial report for December in which business manager Shirley Lomeli said, “We are at 38 percent of our budget spent as of December. We have been very cautious of how we are spending so we are in good standing.” * Tabled an agenda item that called for discussion on a proposed Cyber Security club at WHS. It was tabled due to lack of information. The next meeting of the WUSD governing board will be at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 17, in the board training room, located at 800 N. Apache Ave.
