Kirk Kolb, Superintendent of Grants Pass School District

How does Governor Brown's expanded face-covering order impact District 7's plan for re-opening?

Will the district supply masks?

If so, have they secured a reliable vendor?

How are plans for reopening going in general?

Nto effect tomorrow, that will have an impact on students.

Newswatch 12's adam schumes has more.

Schools around southern oregon are releasing their plans for the fall of 2020.

Joining me now is kurt called thsuperintenden t for the grants pass school district.

So what are your plans for the fall of 2020?

Oh, plans are vast for sure.

We're preparing for anything from complete online learning to having our youngest students with us all day, every day, if possible.

Uh, so we, we got the gamut in the works, a lot of logistics that go with that, but my team is doing some incredible work right now.

Have you had conversations with teachers about their thoughts on returning to the fall of 2020.

Yeah, uh, i'm married to one of them.

Uh, so, uh, she's eager to get back and see kids.

Uh, the vast majority of teachers are eager to get that can see kids.

Um, but they're all a little bit skeptical, um, and wanna ensure the highest levels of safety before doing so.

And we totally honor and recognize that.

So we're putting safety at the top of our list.

In ery decision we make.

Do you have teachers or even substitute teachers that are in that ass at risk category that.

Kind of oppose going back to the fall of 2020.

Yeah.

There are a handful that are in that category that are, are very opposed to, and so we're going to work very closely with them.

Um, there will be opportunities we believe maybe for some teachers to work remotely, given that we are going to have a completely online program that may create some flexibility.

Uh, we just don't know exactly what number of teachers that is.

Or what that will look like.

You have a plan in place.

If a student does get infected with covid-19.

Uh, yeah, we're working with the local health authority.

The state will be coming out with guidance, very specific to when just shut schools down because of covid infections and stuff like that, so that they promised they'd have that to us by august 11th.

So we're, we're anticipating that, uh, our local health authority has been fabulous to work with in helping to guide that decision making.

We have a pandemic.

Plan a on file with the health authority that helps make those decisions as well.

I'm sure you've had, i'm sure you've heard about governor brown's new order yesterday.

How well are you prepared and how well are your teachers and staff we prepared to go with the new mask mandate in effect.

Yeah, we were a little disappointed.

We thinking about having our young youngest little five-year-olds and six year olds being required to wear masks all day, um, was, is a bit bothersome.

I know it's bothersome for some families.

It may be the deciding background, whether or not families want to go completely online or they want to send their kids to schools.

Uh, we are prepared.

The state is procured more than fa approximately 5 million masks.

To distribute to schools and those will be coming to us here in august.

Uh, we also have a pretty good supply ourselves.

Um, so we're prepared to provide, uh, any, we're going to have a range of face coverings for staff and students.

Have you had conversations with parents already?

Since the news came out yesterday about how they feel and their opinions moving forward.

Yeah.

Unfortunately i have not yet had personal conversations with parents.

Um, uh, so i, i look forward to that.

We're going to have a town hall, a zoom town hall for parents on august 6th, where they can ask lots of questions of myself and my team.

Does your plans for the fall of 2020.

Rely on the parents or, or do you, we get a lot of feedback.

Does that deserve your parents' decisions or their concerns go into your, into how you plan for the fall of 2020?

Oh completely.

That's at the forefront of our planning is what are the wishes of the families and honoring their safety, honoring their desire for their kids to be with peers.

Um, so we, the whole range of sentiments by parents is taking into consideration, uh, when, when we're doing this.

Um, so yeah, absolutely their voice is critical in, in what we do moving forward.

Where do you work now?

What do you go from here?

Where did we go from here?

Um, well, with the news yesterday that doesn't change our plans necessarily a gp online is in its infancy to get launched.

We've adopted a new learning management system that we'll use both in the classroom and is very user friendly in the home, uh, for, uh, the web based part of their insuction.

So, um, that's a lot of investing in that.

And the other investment is in staff is helping our staff to feel very comfortable in teaching through in a virtual environment.

So a lot of investments there, there's going to be a lot of professional development, a lot of communication, a lot of learning for everybody.

And my last question to you, have you had conversations with the school bus drivers about how you're going to transport those students that do take the bus in the mornings?

Yeah.

We've had some conversations with bus drivers.

Um, many of them actually fall into that, uh, over 65 category.

Um, and so wanting to ensure their safety and looking at the requirements of being on buses and make sure they're comfortable with that.

If we don't have buses, we can't get kids