Colfax school district COVID-19 response: questions but no answers

By LeAnn R. Ralph

COLFAX  — School has been closed since March 19 because of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, and now there are many questions but no answers regarding end of school activities.

William C. Yingst Jr., district administrator, told the Colfax Board of Education at the April 21 meeting that he has recently attended numerous webinars and Zoom teleconference meetings related to COVID-19 with the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction and other agencies, and there are “dozens of questions but no answers.”

There was very little information with the order that closed schools at the end of the school day on March 18, he said.

The school closure was recently extended “to the end of the year,” and district administrators have now learned that does not mean the end of class sessions in late May or early June, but that school districts are closed until the end of the fiscal year on June 30, Yingst said.

As for what could possibly be done for the graduation ceremonies for the Class of 2020, school property is closed — period — for anything, he said.

If the school grounds are opened up for any activity, the school district incurs all liability for social distancing (keeping people more than six feet apart) and groups of no more than 10 people, Yingst said.

The Colfax High School graduation ceremony was originally scheduled for May 15.

Even though it is not likely the school district is going to be able to hold a graduation ceremony, still, “we have not forgotten the seniors, and we would like to do some kind of program,” Yingst said.

The senior scholarship awards event scheduled for May 6 may be able to be conducted through a virtual live-stream, said John Dachel, Colfax High School principal.

For the first three quarters of the 2019-2020 school year, there was positive revenue coming in for tax dollars. But the COVID-19 “Safer at Home” order that closed all non-essential businesses until May 26 could affect all school funding and all government funding, Yingst said.

The entire situation is unprecedented, and “we are still building the plane as we are flying it,” he said.

The following end-of-year events have been postponed until further notice: prom, graduation, the school play, athletic banquet, National Honor Society banquet, senior banquet and the FFA banquet.

Meals

The Colfax school district has been preparing 268 meals per day for 120 families, Yingst reported.

Colfax school bus drivers and other staff are delivering the meals — and work packets, when necessary.

Yingst said he was surprised there are only about 10 families who are having problems with connecting to the Internet so their children can do school work.

“That’s amazing. I thought there would be more,” he said.

The school district has been receiving positive feedback about the meal-delivery program, Yingst said.

The Colfax FFA and FFA Alumni donated pudding for the meals, and the school district received two shipments of Ellsworth cheese curds to send with the meals, he said, noting that the Colfax school district also has sent a donation to the Ellsworth Cooperative Creamery.

The FFA Alumni is planning to donate another week of cheese curds as well as another dairy product, said school board member Jaclyn Ackerlund, who is a member of the FFA Alumni and whose husband, Steve, is president of the FFA Alumni.

School board member Jodi Kiekhafer said she was concerned about whether there might be more families in the school district who need to have meals delivered.

The teachers are asking weekly when they have contact with their students about whether anyone needs to have meals delivered, Yingst said.

All students who are aged 18 and younger are eligible for the meals, he said.

Reports

During the reports from principals Trevor Hovde and Dachel, along with Polly Rudi, special education director, the Board of Education learned the following information:

• Colfax High School senior Kameri Meredith has been named one of 32 statewide award winners in the 2020 WIAA Scholar Athlete Program. Kameri will be honored at a banquet at a later date.

• Trey Hovde has been selected by the Menomonie Optimist Club as their scholarship award winner.

• To date, there are 345 students using the Accelerated Reader program, and they have passed 30,840 quizzes amounting to 22,757.4 points students can use to earn incentives. The average for all students is 90.0 percent correct. Students have read a combined total of 83,702,836 words this year in AR, and 12 students have read over one million words, while two students have read over two million words.

• Students in junior kindergarten through sixth grade have started using the myON reading program through Renaissance Learning. With myON, students read books online and then take Accelerated Reader quizzes for those books. Colfax students have read 6,682 books and have spent 2,181 hours and 25 minutes on the myON reading program.

• The Forward exams with third grade through sixth grade students are cancelled this year due to COVID-19.

• Third quarter grades were sent home on Friday, April 3.

• Multiple IEP meetings and/or Human Service Care Plan meetings are being held virtually or by phone (per parent preference) each week.

• Birth to Three referrals continue to be sent, and students will be tested as soon as the stay-at-home order is lifted.

• The open enrollment deadline, which is the deadline for parents to submit applications for open enrollment, has been extended to 4 p.m. May 29.