Mt. Pleasant drops positivity rate as metric for changes

MT. PLEASANT - The Mt. Pleasant Community School District will do away with county positivity percentages as a metric for determining when to switch learning models.

At a special session on Monday evening, the district's school board approved recommendations from Superintendent John Henriksen in a 6-0 vote. Board member Willy Amos was not present at the meeting.

The change will replace the percentage specifications with various factors the district will use to determine when to switch learning models. The change is intended to give the district more flexibility as it makes changes to its learning models as needed.

'In terms of flexibility and deciding whether or not to have school face-to-face - that is a big deal. It's not just a big deal to make the decision, but a big deal for our kids and our families. It is a significant change and disruption to families and what they're doing,” Henriksen said.

Before the changes, the plan stated the district would be in a face-to-face model 'when there is none to moderate (0 to 14 percent positivity in county) community spread,” and would enter a hybrid model 'when there is substantial controlled (15 to 20 percent positivity in county and 10 percent absenteeism among students expected for in-person learning) community spread,” and a remote model when there is 'substantial uncontrolled (greater than 20 percent positivity in county with health care resource capacity concerns) community spread.”

As of Tuesday morning, Henry County had a 19.8 percent positivity rate over a 14-day average according to the state coronavirus tracking site. Despite the county consistently experiencing substanstial controlled and substantial uncontrolled spread throughout November, Mt. Pleasant schools have remained in a face-to-face learning except for the middle school, which entered a hybrid model for seven days in late-November due to staffing issues.

The board approved striking the stipulation that the district would determine its learning model in alignment with 'the level of circulating virus in [the] community,” and instead will make decisions based on various factors including 'county positivity rate, regional health care concerns, student absence rates and staff absence rates.”

Board member Josh Maher expressed concern deviating from guidance provided by the Department of Education. Henriksen said guidance from the department has been considered 'suggested mitigation strategies” and was written to allow flexibility. The superintendent added he has received 'zero negative feedback” on the way the district is continuing its face-to-face model from Henry County Public Health Director Shelley Van Dorin.

Henriksen noted the plan, when written over the summer, focused on mitigating spread among students but since school has restarted, the main obstacle the district is facing is virus spread among teachers and staff.

Spread among adults of the district caused the Mt. Pleasant Middle School to enter a hybrid model, returning to regular classes on Monday. The school saw approximately a third of its teacher and staff out due to positive cases, which prompted the temporary change.

Henriksen shared that the district began keeping track of staff and faculty absences. On Nov. 23, the district had 44 total staff absences - 17 teachers, 19 teachng assistants and eight administrative and custodial staff. The superintendent said the number dropped down to 22 absent staff on Monday as a group of adults returned from quarantine.

'There doesn't seem to be a lot of transmission in the student population, more so it has affected us on the adult side of things. That has been the more difficult challenge to deal with,” Henriksen said.

The superintendent added he hopes to continue a 'targeted approach” when addressing the spread of the virus and learning models for each building. Henriksen added research has shown remote learning 'hasn't been good on the whole,” and the district can continue to serve kids best face-to-face.

With the challenge of staffing in mind, Henriksen suggested further changes to the district's return-to-learn plan in regards to its hybrid model. The original plan has elementary students through the fifth grade continuing to attend face-to-face classes everyday, spread across all available building spaces in classes of 15 students or less while secondary students would be split into two groups and alternate in-person learning days.

The board approved allowing elementary buildings to enter either of the two hybrid models if needed, giving the buildings the option to opt for the model, which would split students into two groups and attending alternating days, which could be used to alleviate the strain on teachers if the buildings see staffing shortages.

'I would like to add that flexibility for the elementary, at least to give us both opportunities to attack it the way that we see that we need to,” Henriksen said.