Colfax schools came close to shutting down because of staff shortages
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By LeAnn R. Ralph
COLFAX — The Colfax school district has come close to being closed this fall due to shortages of food service staff, custodians and bus drivers.
The school district has been operating “bare bones” in several of the last three or four weeks because bus drivers have been out ill as have custodial staff and food service workers, said William C. Yingst Jr., district administrator, at the Colfax Board of Education’s October 25 meeting.
Yingst said he was especially close to closing school because food service staff were out ill.
The school district’s substitute capacity is low, he noted.
Yingst also noted, however, that not all of the staff who were out were ill were sick with COVID-19 and that there were other illnesses and medical issues as well.
Keeping school open is a priority. Virtual learning is no one’s preference, Yingst said.
But keeping school open is becoming increasingly difficult because the school district cannot control what students and staff do on nights and weekends that ends up exposing them to COVID-19, he said.
On the day of the Board of Education meeting, there were 10 active cases of COVID-19 in the school district and 29 people who were in quarantine, Yingst noted.
Since the beginning of the school year, there have been 69 total positive cases of COVID-19, and the total number of times students have been quarantined is 522, he said.
The school district has 782 students and 100 staff members.
In response to a question the Colfax Messenger sent by e-mail, Yingst explained that several students have had to quarantine multiple times because of close contacts and that the 522 is not referring to the total number of days quarantined.
Staff members who are vaccinated have tested positive for COVID-19, which is an indication of the highly contagious variant circulating, Yingst said.
The Delta variant of SARS-Co-V2 has been responsible for the majority of the new cases of COVID-19 over the past several months and is much more contagious than the original virus, according to health experts.
“We are doing our best to mitigate risk,” Yingst said.
One thing the school district cannot do is require everyone inside the school building to wear a mask, since the Board of Education voted to make masks optional last summer and has retained the mask optional policy so far for the school year.
Yingst said that the federal Food and Drug Administration was coming close to approving vaccines for children ages 5 to 11 and that perhaps children could start to be vaccinated as early as the first part of November.
If the school district can make it until Thanksgiving, it’s possible that after Thanksgiving, school will be able to operate in “a more normal manner,” he said.
Spectators
Jaci Ackerlund, school board member, noted there will be more activities indoors this winter and asked about plans to limit spectators at sporting events.
Health experts say they are concerned about another surge in COVID-19 cases after the weather turns cold and people start spending more time indoors.
None of the schools in the Dunn-St. Croix Conference are planning to limit spectators, Yingst said, adding that there will not be any basketball games until after Thanksgiving.
While Colfax is not planning to limit spectators, people who are attending the games will be asked to stay on their opposite sides of the gym, with visitors on one side and people from the Colfax school district on the other side, he said.
Ackerlund also asked about “outside groups” using the gymnasium.
Outside groups would include Boy Scouts or Girl Scouts or other groups not affiliated with the school district.
Last year, the school district did not allow outside groups to use the school because it would have resulted in custodians spending even more time disinfecting and sanitizing.
Outside groups can use the gym, but there are expectations for using mitigation strategies, and they are being asked to sanitize and clean up after themselves, Yingst said.
Ken Neuburg, school board member and chair of the meeting in the absence of school board president Todd Kragness, asked about general mitigation efforts.
The general mitigation efforts are still being used, Yingst said, adding that he was “cautiously optimistic” that the mitigation efforts could be removed next month.
Bus routes
In the Twin Cities, some bus routes have not been running because of a shortage of school bus drivers, said Ken Bjork, school board member.
Could it happen in Colfax that certain bus routes might not be able to run? Bjork asked.
“Yes,” Yingst said.
The Colfax school district has been close to being out of school bus drivers, he said.
Several staff members in the building have their Commercial Driver’s License (CDL) certification, so they have been sent out on bus routes, Yingst said.
“They are our last line of defense,” he noted.
If certain bus routes were not able to run, then the school district would have to find a way to take students home in the school district van “three or four at a time,” Yingst said.
When the resources have been exhausted, Yingst said he would consider shutting down bus routes.
WIAA
What is the WIAA’s position on sports and spectators? Neuburg asked.
The Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association is “willy nilly,” Yingst said.
The WIAA says the schools should do what their local public health departments want them to do, he said.
The Dunn County Department of Health is recommending limiting indoor gatherings to 25 people or less and limiting outdoor gatherings to 100 or less.
If there are no games or tournaments, then the WIAA is not making money, so “schools are put in the middle,” Yingst said.
“We’re doing the best we can,” he said.
The Colfax Board of Education approved a motion to maintain the Back-to-School plan “as is” with masks optional until the board’s next meeting in November.
School board members voting in favor were Neuburg, Bjork, and Ackerlund as well as Kyle Knutson and Andrew De Moe.
School board member Jodi Kiekhafer voted against the motion.
Other business
In other business, the Colfax Board of Education:
• Learned that the school district had spent $3,176 to replace a light bulb and wiring at the football field. The football field lights are more than 30 years old, so they are coming up to the end of their useful life, Yingst said.
• Learned that the school district had saved $40,000 on the new health insurance.
• Learned there would be an in-person Veterans Day program on November 11 but that it would have “some modifications” over previous years.
• Learned that the lighting had been updated in the Colfax High School gymnasium. The lighting had been original to the gym, and there was some danger of fluorescent bulbs falling out the fixtures, Yingst said. The lighting is now set up in four different zones so it can be adjusted for different sports and events, he said.
• Learned that the school district had ordered a small bus last winter. The school district had been operating with only one small bus with a lift, and having two small buses will be helpful for the district if the original bus could not be used, Yingst said.
• Learned that Yingst had placed an order for a 71-capacity Liquid Propane bus. The goal is to replace one bus every year, he said. The school district has 17 buses, so each bus has to last for 17 years, Yingst noted, adding that a new bus costs $112,000 and that the price was expected to increase by 3 percent to 5 percent on November 1.
• Learned there had been a “brown out” in Colfax Saturday night that caused problems for the computers, the telephone system, the Internet access and the air handlers, all of which continued to have problems on the Monday of the school board meeting. Several fuses were blown in the air handling system. The system came back online Monday and was working as of the school board meeting, Yingst said.
• Learned that for open enrollment, there were 108 transfers out of the district and 72 transfers into the district.
• Learned that the third Friday in September count was 782 students, which works out to be 755 full-time equivalency students. State aid is based on the number of FTE students.
During a closed session, the Colfax Board of Education:
• Approved hiring Garrett Maas and Ryan Krall as middle school boys’ basketball coaches.
• Approved hiring Kirk Secraw and Kari Sedivy as middle school girls’ basketball coaches.
• Approved hiring Mark Noll (head varsity coach), Tristan Kittilson (junior varsity coach) and Nicholas Heit (C team coach) for high school boys’ basketball.
• Approved hiring Courtney Sarauer (head varsity coach), Carly Kittilson (junior varsity coach) and Joe Doucette (C team coach) for high school girls’ basketball.
• Approved hiring David Blanchard as the high school wrestling coach.