Jerry Lindsey submitted this article.
An audience at a monthly Morrison School Board meeting is quite rare, but the decisions being made during this corona virus pandemic have the attention of the community. On Monday, November 16, 2020, over 50 citizens virtually joined the Board members, as the future options for their children were being formed. Click here to read the Board’s five-step, virus Mitigation Plan.
During Public Comment, Jim Mertes followed up on his comments made during last week’s Special Board Meeting. He emphasized that some of these decisions affecting the children’s education should not fall on the local boards. Noting the number of changes that have occurred within the last week alone, he said, dictates the need to “save the kids, first and then help them.” Sidonna Mahaffey felt the increased numbers of positive cases of COVID-19 offers a challenge to the Board, to reconsider the four-day, in-person attendance recently initiated.
Superintendent Scott Vance updated the numbers of persons out of school, due to COVID-19: High School, 5 students and 1 staff; Northside, 65 students (with quarantine of 31 students caused by two positive students); Southside,18 students.
Regional Superintendent of Education, Bob Sondgeroth and Cheryl Lee, CEO of Whiteside County Health Department, welcomed questions and added personal evaluations of current situations caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. A recent gathering of local School Superintendents voiced a consensus that a secondary transmission was not noticeable in the schools. The student activities outside of school were carrying a much higher risk of contracting the virus. Sondgeroth, through his multiple school visits throughout the region was not seeing any concern with students wearing masks and social distancing wherever possible and felt very strongly that proper prevention controls were in place in every building he has visited. Both guests expressed the feeling that the safest place for the children is in the school. They noted the home scene opens contact to outside exposures as parents and siblings bring home the possibilities of the virus, after working in a less-controlled environment.
The future of 2020-2021 High School Boys and Girls Basketball remained in limbo. A motion to approve participation, per the IHSA recommendation, was amended to follow the recommendation of the IDPH until further notice. Tier 1 Guidelines will allow practice and non-contact drills, but competitive scrimmages and actual inter-scholastic contests would not be allowed. The IHSA Board of Directors is conducting a meeting with the Governor’s office and IDPH representatives on Thursday, November 19, with hopes of forming a resolution of direction for the State of Illinois.
In other action, the Board approved the January 1, 2021, retirement of 19+year employee Dean Wallace. Also receiving approval was the 2020-2021 contract with R. C. Smith Transportation and the 2020 Estimated Tax Levy as presented.
The MCUD #6 Board of Directors will meet again on Monday, December 14, beginning at 6:30 p.m.