SJO students to have on-campus lunch

St. Joseph-Ogden students will not be allowed to eat lunch at downtown restaurants when school starts in August.

Superintendent Brian Brooks said that students will be required to eat at the school, at least at the start of the school year.

Brooks said the decision was made because the district is responsible for the students during the school day and cannot be sure students would maintain social distancing if they ate outside of the school.

The district will have two lunch periods and will break students into three groups during each lunch period. One group will eat in the cafeteria while the other groups will eat in large rooms, such as the library or the fine arts auditorium. Brooks said desks will also be placed in the rooms to help with social distancing instead of large lunch tables.

During Monday’s school board meeting the Board of Education voted to approve the district’s proposed reopening plan.

The district will divide students into two groups with one group attending in-person three days a week and the other group attending in-person two days a week.
The following week, the groups would switch days. The days the students are not physically in class would be remote learning days.

“This could all change very quickly or maybe it won’t,” Brooks told the school board.

Brooks said the COVID-19 District Team was made up of administration, teachers and staff. They looked at having a similar schedule as the district’s two feeder schools but didn’t feel that was a viable option.

The district’s two feeder districts, Prairieview-Ogden and St. Joseph Grade School, are not using the same plan as the high school district. PVO will divide students into two groups. Each group will attend in-person classes two days a week. The remaining three days will be remote learning days. St. Joseph Grade School will have students attend school five days a week, but do so in half-day segments, where half of the students attend in the morning and the remaining students attend in the afternoon.

”We felt academically that wasn’t very advantageous for our students,” Brooks said. “Our kids can’t afford to lose more academic time.”

Brooks said there was no feasible way to have every student on campus at the same time.

“We can’t meet the guidance in classrooms, hallways and lunchrooms with everyone here,” Brooks said. “If one person gets sick it is a huge liability for the district.” 
Students and parents can expect some more changes from previous years.

Students will not be allowed to use lockers but will be allowed to carry a clear backpack in the building due to safety concerns. Textbooks will be kept in each class. Students will be assigned a Chromebook that will stay in the building for classes that use online textbooks.

“Our number one responsibility is to educate students at the highest level we can,” Brooks said. “We have to figure out a way that our students don’t lose during this first semester or however long this lasts.”

Parents will also have to certify that their student does not have COVID-19 symptoms. Parents will have to certify their students is symptom-free daily. If they do not a staff member will have to take their temperature and ask them screening questions. Visitors will also be limited to the building and everyone on campus will be required to wear a mask.

SJO students who attend school in person will be dismissed at 2:05 p.m. daily. Buses will still run at 3 p.m. so students who ride the bus will be supervised and socially distanced within the school.

The early dismissal time is to allow teachers extra time to address the needs of students who are a remote learning day or on 100 recent remote learning, said Brooks.