The first student day for Bartholomew Consolidated School Corp. students has been moved back to Aug. 10.
The decision was announced at the school board’s strategic planning session Friday and a statement from Superintendent Jim Roberts was released to the public shortly after the announcement.
Roberts said that the delay was not the result of COVID-19 metrics or meetings with health officials. “It was more our continued efforts to ensure that when we open the building to students, that we have created the most safe environment possible in that we have been able to appropriately prepare the academic programs that we’ve offered,” he said.
“As we talked with our teachers’ association, look at our schedule for next week, a preparation standpoint, getting all i’s dotted and t’s crossed, it seemed to make sense just to build in a couple of extra days there and use the entire week, next week, to get everything in place and be ready to go, fresh start on a Monday morning,” he said.
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Prior to the planning session, BCSC had discussions on Wednesday and Thursday with the Columbus Educators Association, local health officials and the Indiana State Department of Health. The school corporation had initially planned to return students to in-person classes on Thursday.
At the meeting, Roberts said his recommendation is to make up the two missed student days — Thursday and Friday (Aug. 6 and 7) — during fall break on Oct. 5 and 6. The board will vote on this recommendation at its next meeting, also on Aug. 10. The delayed start date, however, is effective immediately.
Of the recommendation to move the two days to October, Roberts said, “One, it gets those days made up still in the first semester. But two, if we’re looking at COVID-19 and trying to keep staying in school, shortening breaks helps with that.”
BCSC’s current default for making up days is to take them out of spring break, Roberts said. Therefore, making up the two days in October instead is a calendar change that requires the board’s approval.
With classes delayed, Thursday and Friday will become teacher work days and replace the 1.5 teacher work days scheduled for the end of the first and second semesters. Teachers will be compensated for the additional half day.
Roberts said in his statement that Thursday and Friday will be used for “additional staff readiness for the reopening of school, including preparedness for all three enrollment options.”
“Time will also be devoted to further developing our eLearning program in the event that we must go to a full virtual option due to COVID-19 spread,” he said.
Wednesday (Aug. 5) is already scheduled as a teacher work day and will remain with that designation. There will also be a voluntary, unpaid day on Aug. 4 where teachers can provide input to their principals and address reopening needs. Teachers participating in this day will be able to log Professional Growth Points, which are submitted as part of the process to renew their licenses.
For students, BCSC is providing three enrollment options this year: traditional in-person learning, BRIDGE and Columbus Virtual Pathway (CVP). Both BRIDGE and CVP are virtual programs. BRIDGE is meant to be a temporary option for students who plan to return to in-person learning sometime during the school year. CVP is intended for students who do not plan to return to in-person learning this year.
Roberts said that more than 25% of BCSC students chose an online option. Of the students who enrolled in online learning, 57% were elementary school students and 43% were secondary school students. About 2,300 students chose to enroll in BRIDGE, while about 600 chose CVP.
BCSC’s reopening for in-person learning is dependent upon whether or not certain COVID-19 data indicates that the school system is in a low, moderate or substantial spread. An overall designation of substantial spread would result in a move to eLearning for all students.
Bartholomew Consolidated School Corp. is set to reopen for in-person learning under the “moderate spread” category of its reopening plan. The school corp. recently released an updated look at the COVID-19 data on its website.
The new report shows the school corporation in a continued moderate spread category with the following indicators:
Per Capita Positive Rate (per 100,000) is 9.8 (as of July 28)
Per Capita Positive Rate Trend is increasing (as of July 28)
Percent Positive Test Rate is 9.4% (as of July 28)
Percent Positive Test Rate Trend is increasing (as of July 28)
Test Turnaround Time was approximately 2.8 days (as of July 26)
There were seven COVID-19 hospitalizations (as of July 26, according to Columbus Regional Health data.)
Hospital officials said Friday there are two people being treated for COVID-19 at CRH, with another three people with COVID-19 symptoms awaiting testing results.
As for what the data means for the spread category, results are mixed. The 9.8 per capita positive rate currently falls into moderate spread category but is considerably close to substantial category spread, which is a rate of 10 or above. This rate is also noticeably higher than the 5.8 per capita positive rate reported in the July 20 data.
The percent positive test rate is also on the rise; the July 20 data showed a 4.5% positive test rate. However, the 9.4% rate for July 28 is still within the minimal/no spread category, though it is close to the moderate spread category of 10-15%. Rates above 15% fall into substantial spread.
The most recent information on test turnaround time and hospitalizations were within the minimal/no spread category. If test turnaround time was three days or greater, it would fall into moderate spread. If the number of COVID-19 hospitalizations rises to 10 or more, it will fall into the moderate spread category as well.
These metrics, which include data from CRH and the Indiana State Department of Health, take into account not only COVID-19 spread in Bartholomew County, but also the surrounding counties. Roberts acknowledged that there may be some lag in the state numbers.
School board president Jeff Caldwell said that a single substantial spread or “red” category wouldn’t necessarily mean that the overall designation for the school corp. will switch to substantial spread.
“One of our measures, our seven metrics, is approaching red,” he said. “To me, if it hits red, that doesn’t mean, ‘Okay, that’s a stop sign.’ It means we have to understand, compared with all of our metrics together, does that mean we should take a different step?”
Caldwill advised that BCSC should create “interpretive guidelines” for how to respond to shifting numbers, as well as a group of people to examine the metrics. He also suggested looking at the metrics to see if they’re looking at the right factors and if their designations for spread categories are too strict or too lenient.
“What’s the legitimate expectation for the community if we make the change?” he added. “If we were to go to, for example, let’s assume the worst and all trends go negatively with this, and we decided we had to go to 100% virtual for school. How much lead time should the community expect from the school corporation?”
School board member Dr. Jill Shedd also suggested considering whether certain metrics should be weighted as more important than others.
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Superintendent Jim Roberts’ reopening statement is available at https://www.bcscschools.org/, as is BCSC’s updated COVID-19 data and reopening plan.
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Flat Rock-Hawcreek School Corp. in Hope plans to return to in-person school on Tuesday, as previously announced by school officials.
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