Elementary students are first back in Esko

Esko elementary students returned to school in-person on Tuesday and it was fabulous, Esko superintendent Aaron Fischer told Esko School Board members during their meeting Tuesday.

“Quite honestly, I walked around and I couldn’t believe all the smiles from the teachers and staff and the kids,” he said. “It felt really good to be here today; there was just a different vibe in the air.”

Pre-K students through sixth grade returned to Winterquist Elementary this week, while students in grades 7-12 continued with distance learning for one more week. The older students will return to a hybrid learning schedule on Monday, Jan. 25. Forty-two of the approximately 600 students at the school have chosen to continue with full-time distance learning instead of returning to school, high school principal Greg Hexum told the board.

Seventy-nine students were invited back four days early (and 77 came), with the goal of getting some extra learning time with teachers and catching up before getting back into the classroom, one way the district is addressing students who have fallen behind during distance learning.

Fischer told the board he recommended they stick with the learning plan they approved at their Dec. 21 meeting, after Gov. Tim Walz and state education and health agencies changed state guidelines to try to get students more face-to-face schooling. Of course, things can always change, chair Jeff Salo said, adding that it felt like things changed a half hour into the first day in September.

“We’re already doing better than we did last fall because we had no cases today,” Fischer said with a laugh, referring to the fact that Esko had a student who received notice they’d tested positive after the very first day of school.

Education in a pandemic is a rollercoaster. When he arrived at work to start the week, Fischer learned he was several minutes late to a last-minute conference call with the Minnesota Department of Health regarding the release of vaccines for teachers.

He found out during the call that he had only that day to come up with a list of teachers to receive the early vaccine, which he did after meeting with school nurses and other staff.

Then he found out how many vaccines they were getting. Six.

“It’s better than zero,” Fischer said, adding that the six people they ultimately identified have all signed up for their vaccine now. Additionally, the district is working on a spreadsheet so they have a list of teachers who want the vaccine who are high priority for future vaccine drops.

“I don’t think I’ve ever managed a school district on one-hour notices, but that seems to be how we’re doing things now,” Fischer said.

The board did make some long-term plans at its meeting Tuesday along with approving a number of short-to-midrange actions, starting with sports for the younger students.

Board members also approved the return of both youth and junior high sports leagues and activities effective Jan. 20, after allowing high school sports practices to begin on Jan. 4.

“Board, I think you made a lot of kids very happy today,” Fischer said.

But it won’t be business as usual, Fischer said. Teams can no longer share gym time, which will mean less time for each team. Kids have to wear masks while they practice and adhere to other pandemic hygiene and distancing guidelines, plus the school district will have to hire more people to clean the gym and other facilities more frequently. There will be games, but probably none of the usual large tournaments.

Fischer said in a normal year, youth teams might practice three or four nights a week. Now it will be more like one night a week, with one game per week. In other sports changes, Esko will have a concession stand at varsity games, following guidelines recently changed by the state.

The board supported exploring eLearning days — basically having school online instead of canceling classes for a snow day — directing Fischer to explore the legalities of the idea and support from different staffing groups. Esko has traditionally made up any snow days beyond the first two at the end of the school year, but with distance learning in place for the past two months, Fischer said it makes sense to just call it a distance learning day instead of canceling all school (after the first two snow days).

“I think everyone would agree, a random day off because Mother Nature came and intervened is a beautiful thing and a break,” said elementary principal Brian Harker, adding that he supported the idea of two “free” snow days and eLearning or distance learning after that.

In other matters Tuesday:

• Discussed plans to begin the process of researching and creating another 10-year facilities plan for the school district. They will hold a work session to decide how to move forward, if they want to hire a facilitator and how to get community involvement, etc.Fischer said they have accomplished everything on the last 10-year plan.

• Set levels for each grade level to close open enrollment.

• Hired Jerry Frederick as assistant robotics coach.

• Elementary conferences were moved back to March 2-4.

• Thanked Tamarack Materials for donating 1,000 KN95 masks to the school.

• Approved the Pine Knot News as the legal district newspaper.