Lake Holcombe School Board; Pilot program makes masks optional during summer

By Julia Wolf

“I’m recommending a summer pilot of face coverings being highly recommended, but optional, beginning June 5,” said Kurt Lindau, district administrator, during a regular Lake Holcombe School Board meeting, May 17. “This will allow us to monitor and collect some data, prior to the beginning of the school year.”

Lindau says he continues to receive communications from the Chippewa County Department of Public Health, the Department of Health Services, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the Department of Public Instruction (DPI) and the governor’s office, on a weekly basis. He says the CDC continues to recommend the use of COVID-19 prevention strategies, including the use of face coverings, at least through the end of the academic year.

Lindau says the newest information from the CDC, saying those who are fully vaccinated, do not need to wear a mask in some situations, made him a little nervous.

“Even sitting in this board room, I don’t know who has a vaccine and who doesn’t, and it’s not right for me to ask,” said Lindau.

He says many schools have already dropped the requirement for face coverings.

“There’s still a federal mandate that requires face coverings on public transportation, which includes school buses,” said Lindau.

With that in mind, Lindau says, even if the board does decide to pilot optional masking for summer school, students will still need to wear them on the bus.

“It’ll be interesting to see how the summer goes and see what happens,” said Lindau.

Board member Jamie Morfoot asked if the teachers who volunteered to teach over summer, are OK with optional masking.

“I actually went and talked to every single one of them,” said Lindau. “They all said that if face coverings were optional, they would still teach summer school.”

Board president Brian Guthman asked if they will try to go outside as much as possible and Lindau says he recommends teachers do.

Anneliese Willmarth, board member, asked if there are any plans to offer the vaccine in the school, for students who want it. Lindau says he is sure that will happen eventually, but, so far, vaccines are only open to those over the age of 12.

“Is social distancing at all, even going to be a practice?” asked Morfoot, of the number of students who typically attend the summer classes.

Lisa Spletter, district accountant, says there are normally 35-55 students, primarily elementary aged, but says they haven’t had much for credit recovery in the past. Lindau says he is hoping for 10-14 in each grade level.

After the discussion, members approved the pilot program.

Members also approved a contract for nursing services with the Cadott School District, for the 2021-22 school year.

“We purchase one day a week of nursing services,” said Lindau, adding that it is an annual approval.

The hire of Karlie Antczak, middle school volleyball coach, was also approved.

The board also approved contracts for summer school teachers and staff.

“This will be a work in progress,” said Lindau. “When we look at the final numbers, we’ll see if we have the numbers to support the number of teachers.”

Board member Debbi Readinger asked if there will be bus stops for summer school, like the district has done in the past. Lindau says he has talked to Gilbertson Transit multiple times and says they are waiting to see where those attending summer school live, before deciding routes.

Lindau says he has submitted a preliminary budget for the ESSER II, which has to be approved by the board and the DPI. ESSER II is an emergency relief fund for schools.

“There are no strings attached with ESSER II,” said Lindau. “ESSER III, 20 percent of those funds are to be used to address learning loss.”

The preliminary budget for ESSER II includes continuing an academic support teacher position, a part-time family and community engagement coordinator, converting controls for the new boiler and existing air handling system, to digital controls and gym door replacement.

Board members approved the preliminary budget.

For the 2021-22 milk bid, Spletter says they are part of a group purchasing organization (GPO). She says they need one other bid to compare to the GPO, to make sure they are not being gouged.

“There are very few milk suppliers in the area,” said Spletter.

Spletter says Prairie Farms, through the GPO, was the better pricing, so her recommendation was to continue with them. With that in mind, members voted to award the milk bid to Prairie Farm.

During reports, Lindau says they shut down the boilers after it felt like the weather would warm up, May 14, to begin work on the boiler replacement.

“The asbestos abatement contractor moved in there today, and did some work,” said Lindau. “They’ll be here for two or three weeks, and the next step is demolition.”

Lindau also says work on the roof project is set to begin right after school gets out and roofing materials have already been delivered to the parking lot. He says one of the first steps of the project, will probably be to bring in a big vacuum truck to suck the basalt rock off the top of the roof.

During the meeting, members also accepted a donation from Eastbay Lodge for $93.10, to the band program. They also accepted donations for weight room improvements from Cornell CARQUEST/Chuck Spletter, $50; Hey Everything, $250; anonymous, $5,000; Russel Rabe, $200; Ryley Craker/Lake Holcombe Lions, $750; and Land O’Lakes Foundation, $1,000.