Amidst the Coronavirus pandemic and the United School District is making plans to switch to in-person learning in a couple of weeks.
School board members for District 304 made the decision at their meeting on Thursday night after hearing a report from the metrics committee.
Superintendent Jeff Whitsitt tells WGIL that the district will still follow the same guidelines.
“We would still require masks. That’s guidance that I don’t see going away anytime soon,” Whitsitt told WGIL on Friday. “We’re not pulling any punches here. Social distancing will be hard if not impossible in some cases. At least the six-foot. We’ll do what we can where we can.”
Whitsitt says that they’ll move to be in-class four days a week, adding that parents can still opt to keep their kids remote learning if they wish.
The school board will make a decision next month if the district should move forward with adding an auditorium at the high school or delay it till later.
Superintendent Jeff Whitsitt says that the district had a meeting with lots of contracts to gauge if it’s a “buyers” or “sellers” market for contracting work.
“We had a pretty good meeting. We had a lot of contractors there. If that’s any indication it might be a great environment for us to receive competitive bids. I’m hopeful that is the case. But, I think, from the board’s perspective, if the bids come in and they’re very competitive and it is a good time to bid… great, we’ll move forward. But if it’s not, we’re not out anything by kicking that can down the road.”
Whitsitt says that this year’s budget will show a deficit because of a lot of uncertainties with the state and the pandemic.
