KINGDOM CITY - The North Callaway R-1 School District Board of Education voted 6-1 to remove a series of COVID-19 district restrictions during its May meeting Thursday night in the high school media center.
"I can tell you that we have not had a positive COVID case since February, and the number of quarantines have been less than the five fingers on my hand," Superintendent Nicky Kemp said to board members.
The North Callaway board had previously eased COVID-19 seating guidelines for district activitities in April. Board members unanimously approved a policy change to allow 80 percent seating without restrictions or social distancing at all events, while reserving the other 20 percent of seating to include social-distancing protocols.
The COVID-19 restrictions removed by the board Thursday night included the frequency in cleaning workspaces, appliances, electronic equipment, generally used objects and buses, the use of water fountains, on-campus screening of students and staff, transportation, common spaces, classrooms, cafeteria and meal periods, recess, locker rooms, and before- and after-school programs.
"There's not much that's left (as far as restrictions)," board Vice President Amy Reinhard said. "This should get us through summer school, and then we can re-evaluate in the fall."
Board members continued a discussion Thursday night of teacher surveys they had recently received concerning the district. In response, the board sought and received anonymous teacher feedback on five questions it posed:
Why did you apply to teach in the NCR-1 School District?
What do you like best about teaching here?
What is the biggest challenge facing teachers today?
If you could change one thing about working here, what would you change?
If you could change two things, what would the second one be?
"The surveys have taken on a life of their own," board President Sandy Lavy said. "We want to evaluate the culture of the district through the teachers' eyes. We really did get a lot of positive back (in the surveys).
"What we were looking for was direction. We're going to learn a lot from these (answers to the questions). We'll figure out what we're doing well and what we need to improve on."
Kemp also gave board members an update on work being done on the district's Comprehensive School Improvement Plan. She explained while progress had slowed recently due to the busy end of the school year, focus group meetings took place May 11 on academic success and positive culture.
Kemp added a third focus group meeting on resources had yet to be scheduled. She emphasized the objective was still to have the CSIP ready to be presented to the board by the start of the 2021-22 school year in August.
Board members were also informed by Kemp two meetings will be scheduled in June to finalize the district's 2021-22 budget. The first meeting will be a budget work session at 7 p.m. June 17, and the second will be the regular board meeting at 7 p.m. June 30, when the budget will be adopted.
Both meetings will be in the high school media center.