From bus drivers to students

As classes in Carbon County School District No. 2 (CCSD2) enter their third  month of being in session, there have been changes to every aspect of how school is conducted. 

During their November 16 meeting, the CCSD2 Board of Trustees heard an update from Encampment K-12 School Principal Mike Erickson on how his school was adapting to the changes for the 2020/2021 School Year.

“I kind of thought that I would do something a little bit different than normally we do with the reports,” said Erickson. “I tried to think what would be the most helpful for you guys as board members and, so, what I came up with is something a little unusual but I want to talk about the different groups at Encampment School and how the Smart Start Plan … has affected them and what it does, what they have to do different each day.”

Erickson informed the board that, while the beginning of the school year had been a little rough at first, he believed things had smoothed out for Encampment. 

“Let’s start with bus drivers. What do they do different? They have to wear a mask whenever a student gets on or off the bus and that doesn’t seem like a big deal but most of our bus drivers wear glasses,” Erickson said. “They don’t drop students off when they get to the school anymore. It’s only one bus at a time for us, so they have to wait in the bus lane until it’s their turn. There’s only three, so it’s not bad. It used to be that they disinfected and cleaned the buses everyday, now they do it after every trip.”

In addition to the bus drivers, Erickson informed the Board of Trustees that the normal schedule for the kitchen staff had been changed. While, prior to the Smart Start Plan, the kitchen staff had made breakfast before the school day, their hours had been adjusted to serve breakfast at the end of 1st hour.

With the use of COVID-19 relief funds, Erickson said that Encampment was able to provide all students in kindergarten through 6th grade with breakfast along with any secondary students who ordered breakfast.

“So, at the beginning of 1st hour, secondary students can say yes or no they want breakfast and then our kitchen staff makes those, puts them in bags and by the end of 1st hour, which is roughly 50 minutes after we start school, they deliver it,” Erickson said. “We had a little bit longer 1st hour at the beginning because we just weren’t sure how it was going to go and we had an hour but we’ve found that we were able to kind of streamline things and get it back to about a 50 minute class period.”

While breakfast was served in the classrooms, the lunch period had been altered to utilize both the cafeteria and the old gym. In the past, lunch hours were split between the primary students and the secondary students. Those lunches were split, again, to allow for social distancing.

“What happens is we just have the hot boxes and they go to the old gym and serve, then they go back to the cafeteria (and) serve the students there. Students never leave their seats. Once they go there for lunch, that’s where they stay so they’re social distanced,” said Erickson. “They don’t have to have their mask. The only time students get up for lunch is when they’re excused to dump their tray.” 

According to Erickson, office staff was also helping with lunches. In the case of Deb Burke, Encampment school counselor, she was able to use the lunch period to check in with all the students on an informal basis.

“Custodial staff. These guys have been absolutely hammered. I will say that my custodial staff has done excellent work in a trying situation,” said Erickson.

Since the start of the school year, custodial staff at Encampment K-12 School disinfect lockers on a daily basis, wipe down tables and desks, and disinfect outdoor playground equipment on a daily basis.

“They set-up the tables in the gym, clean them before lunch, clean them after lunch and take them down. We’ve actually had one of our substitute custodians, Tim Kilper, he comes in and helps us take care of tables before and after lunch otherwise we wouldn’t get it done,” Erickson said. “Then, when you throw in snow shoveling, they have been stretched to the max and they have done excellent work.” 

As for the teachers, Erickson noted the educators at Encampment were having to make do with less planning hours. While, in the past, primary teachers could combine grades such as kindergarten and 1st grade for physical education or music, that wasn’t the case now. 

“One other thing that’s happening there, they have to do recess for themselves every day because we can’t put recess together anymore,” said Erickson. “It used to be we did a K-6 recess a couple times a day. We can’t do that now, so they have to supervise their own recess. So, they’re planning time has been impacted greatly.” 

With secondary teachers, educators had to come up with a plan for social distancing for every class.

“That included wearing masks and they have to wipe down the desks in between every class. So, at the end of each class period, we’re walking around with a spray bottle and a soft cloth,” Erickson said.

The final group that Erickson touched on were the students, who he said dealt with the most impacts. One of the larger impacts, according to Erickson, was the time when students could arrive. While, in the past, students could arrive as early as 7:25 a.m. 30 minutes before school, the arrival time had been changed to 10 minutes before the start of school at 7:45 a.m.

“When they get there, they have to go to their locker, they have one stop and then they go right to 1st hour class. They are with their cohort, which is their grade level, through the day. Their social time has been interrupted by this, they don’t get that,” said Erickson. “They don’t get a lot of the trips out of school. Field trips have been impacted. We don’t do nearly the trips we’ve had and those things they really like to supplement the learning.”

Following his report, the Board of Trustees thanked Erickson for his update.

The next meeting of the Carbon County School District No. 2 Board of Trustees will be at 5 p.m. on December 17 at the Central Office in Saratoga.