By L. Parsons During the Winslow Unified School District Governing Board meeting Winslow High School’s Sal Hernandez reported on happenings at the school. “One of the positive things we have seen within this COVID year is sports. Our wrestling teams is very competitive, both the boys and the girls wrestling. Our basketball teams are also very competitive.” He went on to explain that they are attempting to make memories for and with the students despite the pandemic challenges. “We are following our social and emotional curriculum to help kids be better people and we have had some interest in having a prom this year. Of course, it will look different this year, but we want to try to get back to normal so we will go ahead and do it. It is probably going to be outside with a garden theme.” The principals at all levels expressed a desire to host a summer school program from May 24 until June 18. Hernandez said, “We would like to offer that to some of our students to eliminate some of the achievement gaps that may exist because of the pandemic. We want them to get caught up so they don’t slip through the cracks.” Winslow Junior High School Principal Deb Lopez presented the board with information about the new Amazon Future Engineers program that will begin at the seventh grade level next school year. “All seventh graders will be taking this program next year. It is a beginning computer coding program that will help them start learning about this new and upcoming technology. The program is being paid for by a grant that we won from Amazon. They will not only provide us with the curriculum and lesson plans but also support and all of the materials.” Superintendent Kathryn Zanin spoke about mask wearing protocols for the remainder of the winter sports seasons. “All athletes are wearing their masks at all times. If they need to take a breath, they can do that at any time. If they are running up and down the court, they can take their mask down. We also have extra masks on hand. I spoke with Dr. (Tom) Greenwood, who is a medical professional and he said the masks will not cause any long term issues with the athlete or make them pass out or anything.” The Arizona Interscholastic Association (AIA) made an announcement the day after the meeting allowing individual schools to determine how many spectators are allowed to attend winter sports. According to Winslow High School Athletic Director, Kourtney Hendricks, WHS will continue to allow only two parents or guardians per student athlete at both home and away competitions. Face coverings will be required. It was also noted that the board was recognized by the Arizona School Boards Association with the “Total Board Boardmanship Award” for their commitment to board development and continuing education attainment. Miranda Hostings and Kyle Decker with Chartwells, the district’s food vendor, presented a district survey that was distributed in three categories: kindergarten through eighth grade, high school students and parents. Questions on the survey included rating of food choices and nutrition level of breakfast and lunch provided in Winslow schools. Hostings said, “High school students tend to not eat at school for a couple of reasons. They said in the survey that they didn’t like the food, they didn’t have time to eat the food and they wanted more choices for both breakfast and lunch. Overall, K through eight students have a more positive perception of their school foodservice program.” The discussion concluded with the Chartwells representatives explaining their plan for next school year. “We will develop a new menu to address the response on healthy meals and a variety of menu. We will review and work with principals and see how we can address times delivery for breakfast at each school site.” In other business, the governing board: * Hosted a public hearing in which District Business Manager Shirley Lomeli explained the revised district budget for the 2020-21 school year. Due to a smaller student count, the budget was down by $958,304 from last year’s adopted budget of $14,208,696. No public comments were made. * Approved the hiring of Stacey Berg, Joseph Larsen, Wilburt Barton, Janeen Barton and Andrew LeGate as track coaches; Megan Lymer, Stephanie Lymer, Richard Smith and Brent Lymer as softball coaches; and Christopher Garrett, Art Griffith, Ty Hancock, Anthony Reynoso, Drew Luzier and Jordan Payne as baseball coaches. * Approved Winslow Junior High School Assistant Principal Travis Dooley as a qualified evaluator. * Approved the 2020-21 revised expenditure budget as reviewed at the public hearing. * Announced the online registration for kindergarten. Forms can be found at the district website, www.wusd1.org, beginning March 8. * Approved an agreement between the Navajo County Education Service Agency, Special Services Consortium and the district for occupational therapy services in WUSD special education classrooms. This is a routine procedure renewed every three years. * Rescheduled the March 17 board meeting to March 24 as the regularly scheduled meeting falls during spring break. The next meeting of the Winslow Unified School District will be at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, March 3, in the district training room, located at 800 N. Apache Ave.
