By SARAH PARKER | County Line Editor
The school year had a promising start in the Norwalk-Ontario-Wilton School District, Superintendent Travis Anderson reported to the board of education at its meeting Monday.
Both staff and students are “doing a wonderful job” and exhibiting a “positive vibe,” Anderson said. “I couldn’t ask anything more of our staff and our students so far.”
Anderson and other members of the administration made the following comments on the new year:
• Each seventh- through 12th-grade student now has her or her own laptop provided by the school. Students will be able to take them home if instruction shifts to virtual only at some point during the school year. Anderson noted that teachers are incorporating devices into in-person instruction as well.
• The USDA has extended its program for free lunch and breakfast for youth 18 and younger through Dec. 31. It remains unknown whether access to free meals will continue in 2021.
The district still needs families to fill out the applications for free- and reduced-price meals, as those figures factor in the district’s ability to obtain grants, Anderson said.
N-O-W’s food service program served 72,579 meals from the school closure in March through the summer.
• For staff, the district is offering a wellness program, which will include prizes and virtual yoga and mindfulness classes.
• This year, the school district has a theme: “Make It Awesome.” On the first day of school, the staff wore T-shirts with “Make It Awesome” on the front and “Falcon Strong” on the back.
“I see people living by that each day in our hallways and classrooms,” Anderson said.
• Last week, the district reported a confirmed Covid-19 staff case and a probable student case, both at the elementary school. Principal Angela Funk noted that no cases had been reported at the junior high or high school so far.
• Next week, the school will have a “spirit week”/dress-up days during what would have been its homecoming week.
• Thirty-five kindergarten through fifth-grade students and 32 sixth- through 12th-grade students are enrolled in virtual instruction, plus four in-person students are taking a virtual class in a subject that is not offered by the district.
• The district is offering “mini learning sessions” to staff that focus on virtual learning platforms and technology tools.
CARES funding
District bookkeeper Mary Prielipp presented a budget for the district’s Coronavirus, Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act funding. So far, the district has spent $66,680.72 of its $338,045 award, though many invoices remain outstanding.
The district has budgeted the following amounts, with the amount spent so far in parentheses:
• Laptops with carrying cases — $5,320 ($5,320)
• Computers — $20,169 ($20,169)
• Laptops (fifth through 12th grade) — $89,152 ($6,272)
• Computer supplies — $95,993 ($1,732)
• Cleaning supplies — $30,490 ($0)
• Supplies — $25,000 ($7,844)
• Face shields — $1,161 ($1,161)
• Falcon masks — $5,670 ($5,670)
• Falcon gaiters — $3,353 ($3,353)
• Water bottle fillers — $12,995 ($4,045)
• Internet hotspots — $2,299 ($2,299)
• Staff trainings — $6,443 ($6,443)
• Health assistant — $10,000 ($242.22)
• Additional salaries/benefits — $25,000 ($0)
• Additional summer nursing hours — $5,000 ($2,130)
Besides the CARES funding, the district has received $91,000 in Governor’s Education Emergency Relief money.
CLC
The board agreed to postpone any decision on continuing the Community Learning Center afterschool program, which has been suspended since last year.
At present, students are dismissed at 2:30 p.m. to allow for deep cleaning and for teachers to work with students who selected the virtual option. Essentially, for the CLC program to be reinstated, the Covid-19 pandemic would have to wane significantly and the district would have to resume full school days, Anderson said.
He added, though, that it was “a super valuable program” and the district shouldn’t “discard it because of financial implications.”
Other business
• Senior and junior high football is slated to begin March 8; and senior and junior high volleyball, Feb. 22. Schedules still are being created for both sports.
• Cross country is the only sport Brookwood is offering this fall. At present, the high school schedule consists of about eight meets; and the junior high schedule, about five meets.
• Brookwood still is planning to host the sectional team wrestling tournament this year.
• Food-service director Kristi Schlafer submitted an email to the board members, thanking them for allowing student meal delivery to continue after school closed in March.
“Knowing they were still being fed warmed our hearts,” she wrote.
Board member Cari Keith was among the many volunteers who delivered the meals throughout the spring and summer, Schlafer also noted.
For some families, “it was the highlight of their day,” she added. “School is truly some of these kids’ home away from home. And as one mom said, meals gave her a sense of warmth and normalcy, knowing that they could not be here with their friends learning and playing.”
• The board chose not to participate in a CARES Act program that would allow employees to defer payroll taxes for each pay period from Sept. 1 to Dec. 31. Prielipp had consulted with an accountant at Hawkins Ash CPAs, which does the district’s audit, and had been advised not to take the option.
Prielipp noted that a deferral would generate a lot of work and complications, plus employees likely would prefer consistent paychecks, rather than larger paychecks through the rest of 2020, and then smaller paychecks from Jan. 1 to April 30, 2021, during the payback period.
Moreover, it could be difficult to collect the taxes from those who end their employment with the district before the payback period begins.
“What is somebody leaves? We could be stuck with that,” she said.
• The N-O-W School District will sign up as a potential recipient for a FEMA grant that funds mostly building projects. Essentially, FEMA would provide 90 percent of the money for a “safe house” designed for shelter during inclement weather, and the school district could use it for its own purposes the rest of the time.
The FEMA program is funded at $550 million this year, though it may not exist next year, Anderson noted.
• The board approved five alternative open-enrollment students into the district and one out of the district.
Open enrollment allows students to attend school in a district other than the one in which the reside. The open-enrollment period ran from Feb. 3 to May 29, but alternative open enrollment allows students to apply at any time if certain criteria are met.
• This year, reading challenges will be set by individual classroom teachers, rather than be an all-school event, noted elementary principal Gayle Luebke.
• The board hired Arrow Seamless Gutters of Cashton to install gutters along the memorial garden for $3,175.64. During rainfall, water has been going under the doorway near the garden.