By China Cassidy During the Holbrook Unified School District Governing Board meeting last Tuesday, the board approved a recommendation by the district to move forward with the second updated version of Phase 2 of the 12-point back to school plan beginning Sept. 14. In the newest update to Phase 2, which was initially set to have kids attend on campus for one day of in-person learning and three at home each week, kids will now attend in person for two alternating days each week. One group of students will attend on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and the other group will attend on Mondays and Wednesdays. Board President Linda Yazzie read letters from two parents of students who attend schools in the district who expressed their concerns and frustrations with the virtual learning setting. In a letter from Brittany McGee she explained that her children have found it challenging. She noted that aside from meltdowns over trying to navigate their way through videos or when attempting to log in, her first and second graders are not faring well through the experience. McGee wrote, “The distance learning is crushing my kids. They want to be in person, I want them to be in person. I can’t keep doing this, I feel if Walmart, Safeway, Home Depot, gyms, diners and movie theaters can be open, then so should schools. We are lucky I am a stay at home mom. I have no idea how families with both or single parents working outside the home are doing this. Please, please, please make it stop.” Another parent, Stephen Cabonneau, who has three children in the district wrote about the lack of time the kids are spending actually learning, real life interaction and in-person relationships as just a few of the issues he sees with having students learn in a virtual setting. Corbonneau also stated that even with the risks associated with returning to school, he believes it is important not to deprive the kids of a high-quality education. While it was expressed that the district’s top priority is to ensure the health and wellness of students, staff and families, the board approved the request to implement second phase of the plan that will give students who choose to, the opportunity to attend school in person two days out of the week. According to Koerperich, “Our goals for our 12-point plan is that all of our students receive the highest quality of education at HUSD No. 3. Our second goal is to develop all campuses to have health and wellness guidelines to ensure students and staff wellness are a top priority. That has to be number one for us right now, is the health and wellness of our students, the health and wellness of our staff and the health and wellness of our families. “All Roadrunners must have the option to be educated in a manner that best suits the students and families and right now we’ve been in Phase 1. Virtual has been our only option, we’re ready to really take a look at option number two and moving forward on how we can start to move in a different direction to get kids on our campus the best that we can based off of three factors.” Koerperich explained that aside from monitoring the state data and local data, they’ve now incorporated educational effectiveness as a metric used to justify the need to return to in-person instruction. “We didn’t really highly consider this as another metric until recently. Because educational effectiveness has to balance in somewhere, I mean, if we’re not healthy and we’re not well, it doesn’t matter what we’re trying to teach, we’ve got to take care of ourselves first and foremost.” The superintendent acknowledged the challenges students and parents are experiencing in Phase 1 of the plan and said the district recognizes the need for in-person instruction noting, “When we talk about kids not having Wi-Fi spots and kids not being able to access the schools PLP program, (the online learning portal) frustrated parents, frustrated teachers (and) not being able to have contact with these students.” Phase 2 will begin Monday, Sept. 14, and continue until the October break when the district will evaluate whether to move forward with the next phase. Students who chose to continue learning solely via the school’s current virtual option, will have the opportunity to reevaluate their decision in October. Students who attend school during Phase 2 will be expected to wear personal protective equipment (PPE), such as face shields or mask during instruction period. Students and staff will be given mask breaks and will not be expected to wear them during recess. Each school has developed their own plans for providing the proper PPE to students and staff. Koerperich clarified that all schools in the district will be participating in Phase 2 of the back to school plan with the exception of Indian Wells Elementary School, which will continue with virtual learning based off the recommendation of the Navajo Nation and Department of Diné Education that there be no in-person instruction for the first semester. The district will also be participating in AIA (Arizona Interscholastic Association) sports with practices also starting on Sept. 14, with competitions to begin at the end of September for football. Koerperich noted that there are still details to be worked out such as spectators and dates. Buses will run and schedules can be accessed on the website along with the details of the 12-point plan at www.holbrook.k12.az.us. In other business, the board: * Approved the 2020-2021 Performance Pay Plan for the district. The plan was approved by 70 percent of the teachers who will participate in the plan for the 20-21 school year as required. * Approved a contract with Casey Hancock as business manager for the district at an annual salary of $63,563, plus $12,000 for the added position of director of support services. * Approved an extra duty job description for oversight and supervision at the PALS daycare, which provides care to staff’s children at a capacity of 15 to 30. * Approved adding a stipend to the extra job duty description for Grade Level Chair Extra Job Duty. * Approved teachers prep coverage pay rates for substitutes at $35 per hour, as well as an increase to the rate of pay by $15 per category, emergency and fully certified, per day. * Approved suspension of the Holbrook Employee Wellness Incentive Plan for SY 20-21, which requires employees to meet a 200 point minimum to offset insurance cost. Insurance benefits and plans will not change. * Approved the resignation of Brian McMahon Aug. 14, as well as a recommendation to waive the $2,500 fee for resigning after May 30. * Approved a recommendation to contract Dobridge & Company P.C. to conduct annual audits for fiscal year 2020 for the Holbrook Unified School District as required by state and federal law, for a renewable period of up to five years. * Approved a recommendation to have Dan Nielson serve as a hearing officer for student discipline hearing in the district on an as-needed basis for matters involving student discipline and employee related issues. * Approved the suspension of Governing Board Policy BGB requiring a first and second reading for the purpose of addressing the next item on the agenda. * Adopted ASBA (Arizona School Boards Association) Policy Advisory No. 677 and 678 with accompanying policies which pertains to Title IX Sexual Harassment as outlined in Policy ACA and ACA-R. * Approved a recommendation to extend the academic athletic warning from one week to two weeks given the complexities of virtual learning at Holbrook High School for the 20-21 school year for AIA sports. * Approved the submission of the proposed district’s 2021 political agenda items to ASBA which will be reviewed on Oct. 17. * Approved governing board members Linda Yazzie and Olivia Jaquez to represent the district as the district delegate and alternate delegate for the ASBA delegate assembly on Oct. 17. * Approved the support staff employment of Kendall Bakurza, substitute bus driver; Earlene Lano, transfer to 12-month driver/custodian; Lane Jensen, Indian Wells Elementary School (IWES) transfer to 12-month driver/facility services; McKayla Korkosz, Park Elementary School/Holbrook Junior High School health assistant; and Ernestine Begay, IWES bus monitor. * Approved the certified employment of Alicia Burnard, substitute teacher; Sylvia Katoney and Patty Tubbs, Educational Services, Inc. (ESI) substitutes; and Faith Caffey, HHS English language arts interventionist. * Approved extra duty for Barry Lambson, district tech cadre/Facebook; Jacob Boyle and Rasheed Hollins, tech cadres; Lori Williams, IWES Athletic Director; Bernice Gover, IWES, tech cadre; Luis Alvarez, IWES lunch detention; Jessica Lano, IWES resident substitute; Victor Paz, HHS head girls soccer coach; Chris Starkey, HHS head football; Benson Wallace, HHS assistant girls soccer; Aaren LaRose, HHS head volleyball; Zane Morgan, HHS head cross country; Delmar Johnson, HHS assistant boys soccer; Lelia Demuth, HHS assistant cross country; Lou Ann McLaws, HHS assistant volleyball; and Steve Satos, HHS assistant football. * Approved volunteers Tony Aguilera, HHS head boys soccer coach; Alaya Darling, HHS fall cheer head coach; Chelsea Hager, HHS assistant fall cheer coach; Frances Ambrose, HHS assistant football; Mark Oberriter, HHS assistant football; and Daniel Moore, HHS assistant football. * Approved expense and revolving fund vouchers totaling $724,002 and payroll, expense voucher totaling $1.3 million and personnel pay stipends totaling $21,447.
