Students in Jasper Unit 1 began the 2020-21 school year on Wednesday, August 12. There are several changes to the school day including checking temperatures and asking about COVID symptoms before entering the schools.
In addition, at the Elementary when the students entered the school they went to their classrooms and the kindergarten were the only students in the gym. At the Jr. High and high school, students entered through specific doors and were either checked at the door or verified they had checked at home. If any student in Jasper County rides a bus, they either checked in at home and handed their driver a slip of paper or they were checked as they entered the bus.
At St. Thomas, normally the children can be seen playing in the morning, instead today they were lined up at their grade level cones and stayed in those rows instead of gathering together for morning announcements.
Masks were worn throughout the day by all and the day included “mask breaks”. This provides a time for students and staff to go outside and take off their masks for some fresh outside air while still maintaining a safe distance from each other.
For District students, there is an early dismissal to allow teacher’s time to work with students in remote learning.
For St. Thomas students, regular days are the norm with parent pickup in the afternoon or early evening (after a new after school program) since the District buses are traveling in the early afternoon.
The District has also began an after school program both at the elementary level and the jr high/high school level.
All of these efforts are in addition to the extra sanitizing and cleaning being done by all staff at the schools in Jasper County along with many, many plans in place for future issues with COVID-19.
Editors note: As the students and staff at the schools begin to find their way, lets as a community show grace and understanding. Let’s remember that all are only human and there will be times mistakes are made, hindsight shows a different approach would be better, or things simply just happen.
Being kind and showing compassion will be the best way we can help keep people safe and healthy. Many people have put in many, many hours to find the best possible course for all kids in our community without any history to base their plans on. There is no handbook. No known strategy that works. There’s only good will, good faith, and good basic knowledge and we have, in our county, some of the very best educators around. Their heart and compassion for our students is astounding.
Let’s treat them the same way we want them to treat our children.
