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As Jennifer Streiler put it, “What a time to get back into education.”
Streiler, the newly minted interim head of schools at St. Vincent, has had to maneuver around some sizeable obstacles this summer as she attempts to get ready for the fall amid the ever-present COVID-19 pandemic.
St. Vincent and Perry County School District No. 32 hit another obstacle in their preparation. Both local schools closed their respective campuses, which began on Monday and will run through at least Friday, July 17.
The schools followed guidelines created by the Perry County Health Department to make their decisions. Perry County Health Department director Sylvia Forester has been in contact with both Perry County School District and St. Vincent.
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“We actually had a meeting with the schools and we’re in constant communication with the schools as they as they make their plans for the upcoming school year,” Forester said. “We’ve been talking to them. We did a tabletop exercise and we went over technical assistance and guidance and ‘We thought about this.’ and ‘Have you thought about that?’ They have been talking to us and we’ve been communicating with them, so there’s definitely open communication there.”
Streiler felt it was smart to follow the recommendations.
“With the uptick in COVID-19 cases in Perryville, we decided to take their recommendations to heart,” Streiler said. “We desperately want the kids back in August for the first day of school. Taking everything into consideration and looking at what District 32 was doing, we felt it was right to follow course.”
Specifically, the schools are cancelling all sports or band gatherings, practices, weightlifting and camps. It always includes all off- campus gatherings.
“That will be a detriment to our sports programs obviously, but it was a sacrifice that we were willingly to take,” Streiler said.
Perry County school district took it a little further to include the closure of Adventure Club through July 17 and also in-person summer school and camps.
“For our district, the campus is closed to children and non-essential staff,” Perry County School District communications director Kate Martin said. “Our 12 month staff continues to work.”
Saxony Lutheran High School is not closed, in the same manner as Perry County and St. Vincent. Saxony completed its summer school from June 10-30, which mainly consists of credit enrichment in order for students to advance ahead toward graduation. Those classes were in person, and had about 25 students participate.
“There was certainly some social distancing going on during our summer school activities,” Saxony Lutheran Principal Mark Ruark said. “We made everything as safe as we could.”
Perryville had hopes of having summer school in person from July 13-24. That will have to wait. However, online summer instruction and credit recovery will continue.
For Streiler, the overarching sentiment is to keep the students safe and healthy as possible for the first day of school for St. Vincent on August 18. Perry County school district has it’s first day back in the classroom on August 26.
“I wish that I knew what keeping them ‘safe’ means right now,” Streiler said. “But at this time we really don’t. We are relying on the experts at the health department to guide us through this tough time. It’s uncharted territory for all of us.”
As of Tuesday, the Perry County Health Department had reported 167 reported COVID-19 cases with 88 recoveries and 79 active cases. Of those active cases five are hospitalized and one is on a ventilator.
“At the end of this, this community is going to have to get together and figure it out if we’re going to get these kids through the school year,” Forester said. “If we keep doing what we’re doing now and we keep having these numbers. It’s going to take a community effort to really take some responsibility to get these kids through the school year.”
Both schools have the expectation of opening the school campuses back up after the July 17 date, that’s the plan anyway. Martin explained that parents will be notified of any changes next week.
“It’s what we hope to do,” Streiler said. “Of course that is two weeks from now, so I couldn’t even guess what it’s going to look like in two weeks, because everything is so unpredictable.”
