by Garrick Moritz, Gazette
Editor's Note: This article was initially released via our website on 4/29/20, and has some minor modifications and updates, such as Chester's current plans for their graduation.
The Garretson School board met in a special session on Tuesday, April 28th at 6 p.m.
The first item of this special meeting was to hire a new teacher. The board approved the hiring of Jeena Lentz as a new second grade teacher for the district.
Next was the first big topic of the meeting, school lunches and food services during this COVID-19 crisis. The contract with Thrive Nutrition Services ends soon. The Request for Proposals for a new lunch services company was only just issued. Meanwhile the school is serving between 160-170 meals per day. Most students from in town pick up their meals during the day, but others are being delivered across the district.
“Our district patrons have really utilized this service and we’d like to continue this service throughout the end of June at least,” said Superintendent Guy Johnson.
Board member Kari Flanagan said that she felt it was absolutely essential to many students and district families to keep this service going during this crisis.
Supt. Johnson proposed that the school would take over paying the wages of school lunch staff directly, paying them at their current hourly salary rate as temporary employees of the district. He wanted the board’s approval for this so that when June payroll was released for approval they would understand where the expense would be coming from.
The board heartily approved the request, wanting this service to continue for district students and families. Board president Shannon Nordstrom asked about food commodities and how that might affect the RFP or new contract from a new entity. Supt. Johnson said that they would be doing a full inventory after the termination of Thrive’s services and that no food would go to waste.
The next item on the board’s agenda was the big one, talking about changing the date of graduation for the district.
Board President Nordstrom started the discussion.
“With COVID-19, we’ve had to cancel a lot of events and activities. Prom, FFA trip, Track & Field sporting events, the school’s band and choir trip,” he said. “A lot of events that we would have rather have had, and a disruption to normal life as we do it. Things have been dramatically different this year. So, with that we’re going to talk about graduation. This is pretty personal to me as I have a student getting ready to graduate this year, but I’ll put my personal feelings to one side and we’ll have some good discussion as to what we should do. Mr. Johnson and Mr. Long will talk about some proposals and plans and we’ll go from there.”
Supt. Johnson said that they’ve been looking at what to do about graduation since shutdowns were announced, and he yielded the floor to HS Principal Chris Long to talk about it.
Long talked about wanting to have all the senior class members gathered together in one place, one last time, and the difficulties it would present. He said that his first meeting on Zoom with students more than a month ago had 44 grads and maybe 30 different ideas as to what should be done. Meeting with area Principals, also via Zoom, he said that only about 12 had plans and the rest were up in the air. As an example, he said, Dells planned a virtual graduation and Chester planned to do things at their foot- ball field. (Chester is actually hoping for a normal ceremony, but has backup plans for a drive through ceremony.)
He said that consensus was difficult. Many wanted to have it as soon as possible and others wanted to push it back as far as possible, into August, September or even October. He sent out surveys, and had 94 returned. He said that it was just like a bell curve, most rounding in about the middle in July. However, because one student will be joining the armed forces and leaving for basic training by July 5, Long said he’d prefer to have graduation sooner to accommodate that student. One idea he suggested would be to host the graduation outside at the football complex, to accommodate for more space for people to attend safely. So, his recommendation was Saturday, June 20, probably to be held at the football field, maybe in the evening under the lights. He said he’d love nothing more than to do a traditional graduation at the school, and that anything else would be a compromise, but that he just didn’t know if it would be possible.
Long said that after the Governor’s press briefing that morning he was only more confused as to when people would be free and clear to resume life as normal. The problem, he said, is that information shifts day to day, week to week and they just didn’t know.
Board member Ruth Sarar asked about weather conditions, as in what to do if it rained on that June 20th day. Long said that fallback dates would most certainly be in place if that was the case.
Board member Tony Martens asked what it would look like.
“Are we going to have the kids five yards apart on the football field then, from this plan you’re proposing?” Martens asked.
“Yeah that’s pretty much it,” said Long. “We’d have the kids on the field, separated like that and families seated in groups in small clusters, family groups that live together in the same house seated together, able to maintain distance from each other. The good thing about being outdoors is that more people could attend. People could come in cars and we’re talking about an FM transmitter to broadcast to radios and Mr. Schrank can make it broadcast on the Alliance channel as well. Not everybody will have the best or most perfect view, but it would be one potential way to get it done. This is based on the scenario of what would we do today if we had to do it. If the restrictions ease, I would be more than happy to do a traditional graduation.“
Long said that his goal was to make sure the graduates had the opportunity to gather together one last time for the graduation ceremony. Plans were not finalized as to how exactly it would happen. If the situation improves, they could have it at the school in the traditional manner, but if the situation worsens by June and we get a full lockdown, that’ll be another story.
Long said that the school has to abide by whatever restrictions the South Dakota State and County health departments require of them for the health and safety of their students.
At this point he requested that the board modify the calendar to set a new date for graduations, set a goal out there, and if it has to change, it does. This all being said, he felt that June 20th would be the best date in his opinion and that hopefully, some level of normality would been restored by then.
Board member Flanagan was concerned about students going onto post-secondary education and if a delay in graduation, even to June 20th, would be bad for students.
Long said that sending school transcripts out to institutions would not be an issue, as they would have school transcripts prepared and sent off to whatever institutions they needed to get to by May 25th or 26th, as usual.
The board then discussed the issue of moving graduation to the proposed June 20th date. Board President Nordstrom said that his personal opinion is that later would be better, and that he was one of those that thought August would be a good idea. However, he cited that he would support moving the date to June 20th because of his respect for a young man who is volunteering to serve his country, and not wishing to deprive that person of the opportunity to graduate with his classmates.
The board’s consensus was to get a date picked, and then do the best the district could to make it happen. Having the event in the evening under the lights was dismissed as a viable option, because by then the days would be long, and dusk wouldn’t occur until after 8:45 p.m. Keeping it at 1 p.m. was decided to be the best option.
The board voted to approve the change in the school calendar, moving graduation ceremonies to June 20th at 1 p.m. While the possibility of having the ceremony held at the school gym was not seriously discussed, they did not set a final location, as everyone hoped that restrictions and recommendations from federal, state and local officials might be relaxed.
Nordstrom said that realistically, the board and administration will need to work with whatever situation presented itself at that time. He said that there have been indications that the state will open up at least partially by that time, but that nothing is known for sure.
The board then adjourned for the evening.
