CJI doing full school re-opening with some safeguards

Chester-Joplin-Inverness Schools plans to return back to school at full capacity and with face-to-face instruction.

“(Tuesday) morning at 6 a.m., the board approved the revised and approved the return to learn or school re-opening plan that I presented to them,” CJI Superintendent Tim Bronk said. “Basically, the plan states our goal that we believe face-to-face learning is best and that’s our goal to make that happen in the traditional sense.”

“We want to do that in keeping the school safe and healthy, and we want to keep it open once we do open the school,” he added.

School will begin Wednesday, Aug. 26 at 8:25 a.m., he said.

He said the schools are going to maximize the square-footage of the classrooms by moving any unnecessary, unused items into storage, so that they can have students’ desks and teacher desks open and available.

Face masks or coverings are not going to be required, he said, but will be encouraged to be worn.

Gov. Steve Bullock announced Wednesday he amended his directive requiring people in public places in counties with four or more active cases of COVID-19 to wear masks to specify that it includes K-12 schools.

As of today, Liberty County had one inactive case, confirmed in March.

When students are passing in the hallways or in crowded and common areas masks will be required, as well as when they are standing in the lunch line, he said.

“The campus is going to be a closed campus this year from 8:25 a.m. to 3:35 p.m. during the school day,” Bronk said. “Students and staff will not be allowed to leave for lunch or anything like that only unless they have an appointment to prove to the administration.”

He said the district has had some students express that they do not return face-to-face, so remote learning will be made available on a case-by-case basis through Google Classroom, Google Meets, Seesaw and other platforms.

If the district ends up in a situation where they are closing schools, he said, the first step would be teachers would still come to the building and distance themselves by being in their own classrooms, and they would be teaching virtually.

He added that the schools have screening procedures put in place where temperature checks will be taken as students enter the building.

If the temperatures scan 99.0 or higher then that person will be brought into the office and will be scanned with an oral thermometer, if they have a temperature of 100.0 or higher then they will be isolated and arrangements will be made for them to go home, Bronk said.

Staff and visitors will also have their temperature checks before they are allowed in the building, he said.

He said temperatures will not be taken before a student gets on the bus by the bus driver, but is encouraging parents to do it before the children get on.

“The students will have to sit one per seat and if there’s a situation where we don’t have enough seats on the bus of one per seat then we have it figured where family members will sit together,” Bronk said. “... Again, we are not requiring face masks on the bus, but we are encouraging them and we are making them available to all riders.”

Food service kitchen staff will be required to face masks and coverings while cooking and serving food, he said.

He said the district is adjusting its cafeteria times so that they can only sit a maximum number of students in the cafeteria at any given time sitting students at every other seat.

Particular attention will be given to the disinfecting of high-touch areas, including door handles, handrails, locker latches, lavatory handles, etc, he said, adding that spray bottles of disinfectant and microfiber towels will be made readily available to each classroom.

“CJI is very fortunate — Liberty County has zero active cases at this point and so that is a benefit to us, but we are not so naive to know that or to think that the potential for us to have a case anytime is just a moment away,” Bronk said.