Winona-Montgomery Consolidated School District is preparing to reopen schools in August. Do we know exactly what that will look like? We do not, but we are working to develop several plans that will best meet the needs of our students, their families, and community.
WMCSD’s superintendent; district leaders in academics, student services, and operations; and school principals meet every work morning via Google Meet to discuss and develop plans for all areas of school life. Each Monday, the district’s business manager also meets with the group, and twice a month the district’s entire leadership team meets to discuss needs, ideas, and concerns. Every Monday, Superintendent Dr. Teresa Jackson meets via Google Meet with all faculty and staff to share information and answer questions from the district’s employees. Importantly, WMCSD has conducted a technology survey to determine the needs of our students and families and is currently conducting the Reopening Schools Survey for Parents #1. Our parents are giving us great information, sharing their concerns, and asking awesome questions that help district and school leaders to develop the best plans possible.
On Monday, June 8, 2020, the Mississippi Department of Education released a document “Considerations for Reopening Mississippi Schools.” This document addressed the months of June - August. I would like to share some information about where WMCSD is in each of the six topics.
ACADEMIC PROGRAMMING - The Mississippi Department of Education (MDE) is asking the state’s legislature for $250 million dollars to provide every student in the state with a computer/device and Internet access. Additionally, the state will help provide a learning management system, a curriculum program, and professional development for teachers. This is wonderful news for our state and more specifically the students of WMCSD. One of the challenges that we foresee is how long it will take to get the devices. We do not believe we will have devices when we start school in August due to the fact that every state in our country will be trying to purchase computers for their students. We also know there will have to be much training for teachers, students, and families about how to use the devices, the learning management systems, and the curriculum programs in addition to learning how to learn online. Distance learning is a complicated issue and one that will take time to develop.
OPERATIONS - We are developing plans for how to disinfect buildings and buses. We have met with ABM which is the company that handles all of our maintenance and custodial services to write a cleaning plan that will include disinfecting and sanitizing protocols. We will provide documentation at each area that shows when and how often that area has been cleaned. We are looking at ways to use signs to social distance and to remind everyone of the best practices in preventing the spread of COVID-19. We have and will continue to develop a reporting system for reporting people who have symptoms and areas that are not cleaned or stocked with hand sanitizer and cleaning supplies like wipes.
FAMILY AND COMMUNITY SUPPORT - We are working the district’s health services team to develop plans for how we can support families as we transition back to school. We do not know if students will be attending school everyday or if we will have alternating schedules where half of the students attend school on one day and half the students attend on another day. We are surveying parents to determine their concerns as well as needs related to food, transportation, clothing, health services, and mental health.
COMMUNICATIONS - We communicate in a variety of methods and will continue to develop communication outlets to meet the needs of all of our students and families. We use our website at winonamontgomerycsd.com, our Facebook page, our Twitter page, an all-call system, SchoolStatus, and ActiveParent to communicate currently. We will develop plans for how and what information to communicate with parents regarding COVID-19 as we get closer to the reopening of schools.
HEALTH AND SAFETY - We are developing plans for our students and employees in the area of healthy schools which include safety guidelines, policies, and plans for how to reduce the risk of spreading COVID-19. The plan includes District Responsibilities, Employee Responsibilities, and Student/Parent Responsibilities. We have a district health services team made up of our school nurses and counselors, and we are hiring 2 certified nursing assistants and a social worker in order to expand our services to our students and employees.
TECHNOLOGY/LEARNING MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS - We have submitted our parent and teacher survey results to the Mississippi Department of Education. We have also submitted a school district survey to MDE stating what devices and programs we use and what we would request for our students. We have adopted preliminary plans, policies, and agreements for devices.
Thank you for your continued support of Winona-Montgomery Consolidated School District and our nearly 1,300 students and 200 employees. Our summer office hours are Monday - Thursday 8:00am to 4:00pm. Please call ahead for an appointment and be sure to wear your mask. We are TIGERStrong!