All board members present: Chairman Todd Sutton (via Zoom per COVID-19 protocols), Lyn Andrews, Kay Carroll, Ronald Johnson, Terri Sessoms, Tracie Zukowski, Mike Wooten The school board's re-opening debate: What's best course for students and staff? Kay Carroll made a motion to keep Johnston County Public Schools on "virtual learning" by students at home through March 12, the end of the school year's third nine-week grading. Terry Sessoms seconded his motion. "What we've heard today from our staff amounts to a five-alarm fire," declared Mr. Carroll, referring to staff shortages in all phases of school operations because of COVID-19 outbreaks and quarantines. Furthermore, he continued, "parents have asked for some consistency" in how students are being taught. "If we go both ways" with a mixture of face-to-face and remote learning, "our educational delivery is falling off," he said. "My biggest concern is the staffing," Ms. Sessoms added. "A vast majority" of school principals, she said, want students to continue virtual learning because "they cannot staff their schools so school can operate in a safe and orderly manner. How do you ignore that?" Ronald Johnson once again insisted that staff and parents with students "deserve a choice" on whether to teach and learn in school or at home. "If they want to be there (in school), they ought to be there," he declared. Mike Wooten agreed. "Students are having meltdowns in daycare and at home trying to do virtual learning," he said. Lyn Andrews pointed out that coronavirus infections among school staff and students "did not go down" after the system went back to remote learning for all in November. "Our students need to be in school," she declared. "Virtual learning is not working. It's not working." Tracie Zukowski sided with Mr. Carroll and Ms. Sessoms. "We've got to have some sense of consistency so we can get an idea of what's working and not working," she said. Keeping students at home a while longer will give school leaders time to analyze and plan for what's best going forward, she said. "Our grocery stores are open, Lowe's is open, Walmart is open," Ms. Andrews countered. "These places are open because they provide a service to us." But when "we close the schools, we're in a crisis," she stated. Mr. Johnson voiced concern about "kids in government housing" who are "getting into trouble" because they aren't in school getting positive guidance from adults. "It breaks my heart," responded Ms. Sessoms. "Most of my career (in public education) was spent in those areas where we have a lot of poverty." Nevertheless, she said "giving our staff an opportunity to recover and get back to work" is needed before bringing students back to school. Mr. Carroll's motion was defeated when Board Chairman Todd Sutton joined the other three in opposition to delaying students' return till mid-March. Subsequently, Mr. Sutton joined Ms. Andrews and Mr. Wooten in support of a motion from Mr. Johnson to return students in all grades to school as soon as it's practical. The February 1 return date was accepted when administrators said it would take till then to work out staffing and transportation to bring students back. Meanwhile, students of parents who have chosen remote learning at home for the rest of the school year will not be forced to return to the classroom. READ the school system's official announcement of the latest re-opening plan> MEDICAL EXPERTS SAY SCHOOLS NOT SO INFECTIOUS To start off Tuesday's discussion, the board heard (via Zoom) from two Duke University physicians affiliated with the ABC Science Collaborative set up with funding from the National Institutes of Health to help school systems deal with challenges brought by COVID-19. They said "overwhelming data" shows that transmission of the virus is minimal among children in school. Infection is much more likely to spread from one staff member to another than from child to adult, they told the board. The risk of coronavirus spread among children is increased by their attendance at public gatherings, not so much by attendance at school, they emphasized. ADMINISTRATORS REPORT STAFFING ISSUES Prior to the board's debate at Tuesday's meeting, Chief of Human Resources Brian Vetrano provided some numbers on the pandemic's impact on staffing. Currently Johnston's schools have 138 vacancies among "classified" personnel (including teacher assistants, clerical workers, custodians, bus drivers) and 66 among "certified" employees (teachers mostly); normally, those numbers this time of year run about 80 and 30-40, he said. Regarding substitutes, normally 72% of teachers and others absent are covered, but lately only about 46% of temporary vacancies are being filled by substitutes, and that's declining, Mr. Vetrano reported. Deputy Superintendent Paula Coates talked about the strain on the system's supervisory employees who're filling in wherever needed beyond their normal responsibilities. "We are in triage mode," she said. "Our folks are juggling about everything they can juggle.... and they're kinda at a tipping point." THE UPS AND DOWNS OF SCHOOL OPENING Johnston's schools started the 2020-21 term in mid-August with virtual learning for all and planned to bring elementary students back to school after Labor Day. That changed when the board voted 4-3 in late August to delay their return till mid-October, the end of the first grading period. In late September the board voted unanimously to allow students to return to school in stages, starting with the youngest, with all grades coming back by the end of October. Then, in early December the board voted 5-2 to revert to virtual learning for all students through January 15, a date that prompted the board to decide this week on how to proceed from here. In making last month's decision (by a newly constituted board), Mr. Johnson and Mr. Wooten cast the two votes against reverting to remote learning at home for all. Chairman Sutton and Ms. Andrews joined Mr. Carroll and Ms. Sessoms in approving the temporary shutdown of face-to-face instruction. THANKSGIVING ELEMENTARY IS NEW SCHOOL'S NAME The board approved "Thanksgiving" as the name of the new elementary school under construction off NC 42 east of Flowers Plantation. Chief of Operations and Communication Dolores Gill said the rural community's name originated with a Baptist church established there in 1899. The Earp family, which donated property for the nearby Thanksgiving Volunteer Fire Department and sold the land where the new school is being built, has requested that the school's media center be named for family patriarch Dr. Raymond E. Earp. Formal action on that request must wait till next month's meeting, she noted. GRANT TO BUY MORE SCHOOL-ACCESS CONTROLS The board accepted a $100,000 federal grant from the School Violence Prevention Program of the U.S. Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) to install door-access control systems at six Johnston County schools: Archer Lodge Middle, Meadow School, and Micro, Polenta, Princeton, and River Dell elementary schools. Such systems are already in place at all of Johnston's high schools and seven middle and elementary campuses. Mr. Carroll asked if federal CARES Act money could be used to equip the remaining campuses. Finance Director Stephen Britt indicated there's a good possibility that can be done. (He reported later during Tuesday's meeting that Johnston's schools may be in line to get another $29 million from a second round of CARES funding recently approved by Congress.) $400,000 BUDGETED TO COVER ATHLETIC SHORTFALLS The board approved a budget amendment from Finance Director Britt that frees up $400,000 to make sure athletic departments at Johnston's schools have sufficient funds to cover costs associated with interscholastic sports this year. That money is needed to make up for gate receipts the schools are losing because of COVID-19 restrictions on public attendance at athletic events. The biggest expense is transporting athletes from school to school in activity buses. EMPLOYEES' FAMILY-LEAVE OPTION EXTENDED The board agreed to extend through March school employees' eligibility for extended paid leave under the federal Families First Coronavirus Response Act that was set to expire at the end of December but extended for three more months. Without the extension, school employees having to take leave time because of COVID-19 infections could use up their normal sick leave, noted Chief of Human Resources Vetrano. Finance Director Britt said the county would have to bear the expense of covering COVID-19 leave taken by county-paid staff but assured the board that the expense should be "minimal," most likely covered by what's already budgeted for normal sick-leave costs. ADVISORY COUNCIL APPOINTMENTS CONFIRMED The board appointed Irene McLamb to West Smithfield Elementary School's Parent Advisory Council and Latifah Nixon to the council at Benson Elementary. Ms. McLamb is a former PTA president at West Smithfield Elementary. PERSONNEL DECISIONS FOLLOW CLOSED SESSIONS After closed sessions at the start and at the end of Tuesday's meeting, the board approved appointments of Nicholas J. King, Ph.D. as the school system's new Chief Academic Officer, Brooks Moore as Chief of Facilities and Construction, and David Massengill as an assistant principal at South Johnston High School. North Carolina's Open Meetings Law allows public bodies to meet behind closed doors to discuss specific personnel matters. Actions taken as a result of those deliberations must be done in open session. |
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