School year ends but no plans for fall, yet

DAYTON-Students prepare for the end of the 2019-20 school year on June 16. Teachers placed a deadline for all completed work to be turned in which will be graded by June 12. No failing grades will be issued, but students receiving a D or below will receive an incomplete. Superintendent Doug Johnson indicated those students will have an opportunity to bring up their grade before the start of the next school year.

As the present school year end, school staff and administration turn their focus on the next term in the fall. State working groups will be providing recommendations and guidelines for the possible re-opening of schools for the 2020-21 term. Seven options have been put on the table with the most favored ones involving a split or rotating schedule for students to attend onsite part-time together with continuing distance learning part-time.

Being on-site will likely require safety protocols such as putting up safety barriers, screening students before entry, keeping the six-feet distance rule, requiring face masks and possibly controlling hallway traffic. Johnson acknowledged that families may not feel comfortable with some of the requirements and that protocols could affect district enrollment. He said because it is a public-school system funded by the state, the school district is obligated to follow State guidelines.

“The thing to remember is that for us to be as open minded as possible working with parents that they’re making a difficult decision, perhaps for them, on whether or not to send their children to school when given the right set of circumstances they wouldn’t leave Dayton,” said Johnson.. “But maybe they’re going to choose online because they don’t like what our school happens to look like. It’s not really us they don’t like, it’s the situation we have to follow. So, we’ll just have to see what happens. Everybody’s going to have to give some critical feedback in order to come up with the best possible answer,” Johnson explained. “It’s going to take some patience and everybody’s going to have to try to remove some of that emotional portion of ‘We want to do this...we just want to come back to school.’ But we may not be able to do that,” he continued. In order to find to the best possible answer, it’s going to take some good thoughts, good minds and patience.”

Johnson mentioned that schools are not included in the state’s phased approach for businesses. Part of the reason is because school districts and sometimes school properties can cross county lines. Additionally, students may try to bypass phased restrictions for schools and enroll in a school with less restrictions.

District decisions about the 2020-21 school should be made next month after new superintendent Guy Strot starts July 1. Strot and Johnson both indicated that students and their families, but especially staff, because they know better about in-school logistics, would be consulted in making decisions about the next school year.

“My philosophy is I’m hoping we can open up Dayton in a traditional manner with everyone there and that’s the assumption that I’m going to go with,” said Strot. “But at the same time, we’re going to follow every state law and every guideline that we have to with the County Health Department; because we are a small school and we have a lot of real estate that we can spread out. They have indicated that they will make it a local decision so that Columbia County Health Department okays the Dayton School District plan instead of someone from Olympia telling every school in the state how to do it.”

Sports will be addressed, but nothing has been decided yet. Strot acknowledged that social distancing is impossible but he is hopeful the state will make the decision within the next few weeks.

Board Chair, Katie Leid affirmed, “We don’t have the answers yet. As soon as we get the answers, we’ll pass them on.”