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REGIONAL- Before getting down to business Tuesday, ISD 2142 School Board members observed a moment of silence to honor the memory of vice chair Lynette Zupetz, of Forbes, who died on Sept. 2 after …
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REGIONAL- Before getting down to business Tuesday, ISD 2142 School Board members observed a moment of silence to honor the memory of vice chair Lynette Zupetz, of Forbes, who died on Sept. 2 after battling cancer and heart issues. Zupetz was 74.
“Lynette will be missed,” board member Christine Taylor said. “She and I didn’t always vote the same or see eye to eye, but I never had a single doubt how much she loved her community and her school, and the respect she had for everybody there. Every vote that she cast was in the hopes of betterment of her community and her school.”
While Taylor was logged into the meeting via Zoom, the other members were assembled at the Cherry school, whose attendance area Zupetz represented on the board.
“I’m glad we came to Cherry school today,” member Chris Koivisto said. “For Lynette, it was an appropriate time and place to meet here.”
“She was a Cherry Tiger,” Chairman Dan Manick said. “If there was something where she felt slighted, as a board member she wasn't getting in the way of the district succeeding. But if there was ever an issue, that gal was Cherry Tiger. It'll be be tough to replace her passion.”
While selecting a replacement for vice chair would have seemed a mere formality, board member Chet Larson expressed his objection when Manick called for nominations.
“Since there's only a couple months left and you're going to reorganize in January, why bother?” Larsen said.
“I will be leaning on my vice chair between now and the first of the year,” Manick replied. “I would hate to see it empty.”
Koivisto was the sole nominee for the position and was elected on a split vote, with Larson voting nay.
Superintendent’s report
Engebritson reported that the district had been working on changes to the learning plan based on feedback received from the teacher’s union in a recent special board committee meeting. Teachers expressed concerns that the dual responsibilities of teaching in-person classes while simultaneously instructing distance learners was compromising the quality of instruction and creating “double duty” for staff because of the extra time necessary to accommodate distance learning.
“We've been looking at making some adjustments to that plan,” Engebritson said. “And so we'll be rolling out some changes. We just had our meeting today, so I'll be getting an email out to teachers tonight and rolling out details to parents. It will be improving our educational strategies and instruction to both our in-person students and to our distance learners, especially at the elementary level.”
Engebritson said that district schools will remain in the in-person learning model for now as administrators continue to monitor increases in the 14-day case average used as a benchmark for looking at changing to a hybrid model. Across two weeks the case rate rose from 4.87 cases per 10,000 in greater St. Louis County to 13.74, above the level of 10 that would indicate changing to a hybrid model. However, state guidelines dictate that districts consider that as a starting point for discussions, and the increase has been fueled largely by cases in long-term care facilities, Engebritson said, which doesn’t pose a threat to school-age populations.
Board members questioned Engebritson about the status of possible COVID-19 cases in the district and how that information would be communicated within the district and to parents and the community. Engebritson replied that while numerous students have been sent home with symptoms of illness, the district currently has no reports of positive COVID-19 cases. Maintaining confidentiality of health information to protect the identity of any individual diagnosed in the future will be a primary factor in determining how notifications will be handled, Engebritson said.
In other business, the board: