Students are the priority as DCS plans reopening

“The kids are my bottom line, everyone hears me say that all the time,” said Daleville City Schools Superintendent Dr. Lisa Stamps told those attending the Daleville Board of Education meeting July 15. “We’re just going to have to make every decision with the kids and what’s best for the school system as a whole as a priority.”

The DBOE officially approved the Daleville City Schools “Roadmap to Reopening Schools” at the meeting July 15.

“Our administrators and teacher leaders came together to provide their input and look at this reopening plan,” Stamps said about the local plan that is modeled on the State Department of Education’s plan. “We did meet on multiple occasions for hours and days to get a plan together.”

The plan, which is available on the school system’s website in English and Spanish, outlines the specifics of the “new normal” to include masks and face coverings, hand sanitizer, cleaning and disinfecting, water fountains, school lockers, library books and quarantine space.

Daleville City Schools are set to reopen Aug. 21. Some 300 families of the 1,100 on the school rolls have responded to a survey posted online at the individual schools and on the system’s website. The survey asks whether the parents intend to send their students to school or whether they opt for virtual learning.

A parent’s decision about whether to send students to school or keep them at home for virtual learning will be in effect for the entire nine weeks, Stamps said, adding that office personnel will be contacting families who have not yet responded about how their students will attend school.

Stamps said that right now it appears that 80 percent of the families are opting to send their students to school.

“We will do everything we can to sanitize tables and desks,” Stamps said. “In grades kindergarten through eighth, students will stay in the classrooms and the teachers will move from classroom to classroom. Students will have assigned seats in classrooms and on the school buses. Between classes at the high school, we will sanitize.”

Stamps said that in the event of a positive COVID test among staff or a student, the classroom or area will be closed until areas can be sanitized and disinfected.

Classrooms or grade levels in one school may be affected for a few days or a week, depending on guidance from the Alabama Department of Public Health. “During these times, the system will switch to the remote learning instruction and until students can return to school in preparation for possible outbreaks, we will go to a blended approach where students and teachers will go from a traditional setting to a fulltime remote learning/virtual program and reopen gradually before reopening back to a full traditional method,” Stamps said.

Should there be any type of large-scale COVID outbreak or the governor issues an order to stay at home, the system will continue instruction through virtual means, Stamps said. “We have an outline platform we will use at both elementary and secondary levels.

“Our teachers will come back on board Aug. 10 and they will have nine days of professional development before our kids come on Aug. 21,” Stamps said. “We’re going to make every minute of those nine days count.

“Our goal is to keep everyone safe and to hit the ground running with the urgency of instructing kids,” she added. “We are in the business of educating kids.

“It’s going to be a challenge,” Stamps told the school board. “But this is what we are called to do. This is what we love to do and what we are going to do with much prayer for wisdom to do what’s right for our kids.”

The next meeting of the Daleville Board of Education is Aug. 19 at 4:30 p.m. in the Daleville High School Cafeteria. The meeting is open to the public.