by Sarah Thomack
St. Joseph Post
The St. Joseph School District is considering multiple scenarios as planning is underway for a possible return to in-person classes in the fall.
St. Joseph School District Superintendent Doug Van Zyl says as school district staff look into what the next step is, they are taking into account the 100 pages of guidelines from the Missouri School Board Association, along with guidelines from CDC, the federal government and the local health department.
“You want to use all that information, but at some point, it’s almost too overwhelming to try to sift through all of that and put together what those next steps are," Van Zyl tells host Barry Birr on the KFEQ Hotline. "The other challenge is every place is different. Our district here in St. Joe is different than some of our surrounding neighbors and school districts… so when everybody is trying to work together, that’s fantastic, the challenge is there is going to be no one perfect plan that fits every school district moving forward.”
Van Zyl says some of the guidance in regard to transportation could be the most challenging to follow as the current guidelines indicate there should be one child in every other seat on buses.
“That’s going to be a huge challenge if that’s the way it stays because it’ll probably create some issues for us as far as starting times, ending times, because there’s no way we can get all the kids that we have with the current fleet of buses that Apple runs for us, you’d probably have to add almost another 50 buses and then to try to find 50 bus drivers," Van Zyl says. "Just the amount of money that would cost, I think that’s the one that probably has us the most concerned as far as if that guidance stays in place.”
Van Zyl says they’re getting ready to launch surveys to students, staff and parents.
“We’re going to be asking some of those questions about, in the fall, if we’re able to come back completely, face-to-face, what is your level of comfort? If we’re not able to come back face-to-face, how do you feel about online learning? There’s different things we’re going to be trying to ask to get some more feedback from people to help us make sure we’re trying to develop plans that meet the needs of our community and our families.”
Van Zyl says they are working to have fall semester plans completed by mid-July.