Kalispell schools to recommend early release on Wednesdays

As workloads and stress levels increase for teachers during the COVID-19 pandemic, Kalispell Public Schools will recommend dismissing students two hours early on Wednesdays at a school board meeting tonight.

“During the time of the current health pandemic unanticipated strains have been placed on staff with increased demands for their time to clean, prep, assist students in quarantine and upload lessons and videos to the web and other duties,” an explanation of the recommendation prepared by Kalispell Superintendent Micah Hill stated.

Early-release Wednesdays would start Nov. 11 and go through Jan. 20 if approved. The schedule change would be reviewed in December to determine whether it should be continued for the remainder of the school year.

“It is recognized that there are pros and cons to the change in schedule for our families, students and staff, but that the benefits outweigh the negatives,” the explanation stated.

As of Oct. 21, the district reported 206 students, representing 3.45% of total enrollment, were in quarantine, which lasts 14 days. Among staff, 12 are in quarantine, or 1.56% of the total staff population. Rankin Elementary was hit the hardest with the percentage of students in quarantine. The district reported 57 students in quarantine, representing 15% of its total enrollment. This number includes, but is not limited to, an entire kindergarten classroom and half of a fourth-grade classroom.

Last Wednesday, district COVID-19 Coordinator Bill Sullivan said it’s particularly challenging to keep elementary students from interacting with each other, which is why it’s critical to keep classes separated during activities such as lunch or recess in trying to contain the amount of possible close contacts.

People placed in quarantine are individuals who were notified by the health department as close contacts of someone who tested positive for COVID-19

In regard to active COVID-19 cases, the district reported 16 student cases and five staff cases. This represents 0.27% of the student enrollment and 0.65% of the staff population.

The district is updating the number of cases and quarantines on a weekly basis at https://www.sd5.k12.mt.us. The Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services also provides weekly updates for the state at https://dphhs.mt.gov/publichealth/cdepi/diseases/coronavirusmt/demographics. Differences in numbers may be due to lag time in reporting between agencies, according to Hill.

TO GAUGE how the pandemic is impacting teachers, the Kalispell Education Foundation conducted a recent survey that received up to 287 responses in a district with 425 teachers.

There were 254 responses to a question on how many hours outside of the contracted day teachers were completing duties for quarantined students. Of those responses, 66.9% said one hour; 19.3% said two hours and 13.8% said three hours or more.

When asked to estimate how many additional hours per week were spent prepping, grading and cleaning, among other responsibilities directly related to COVID-19, 287 people responded. Of that number, 53.3% selected one to three hours; 30.7%, four to six hours; 9.8%, seven to nine hours, and the remainder, 10 hours or more.

Teachers were also asked about instructional delivery methods for quarantined students.

For teachers who have, or had, students in quarantine methods varied according to the 287 responses. When asked if quarantined students were being taught synchronously — meaning teachers were livestreaming classes online — 35.2% were using this method while 44.3% said they weren’t. The remainder were either on the fence about starting synchronous teaching, or were uncomfortable with the method. About 36.6% have made videos or recorded classes for quarantined students; 40.1% hadn’t and 19.2% planned to. The remainder of respondents were uncomfortable with this method. Most teachers connect with students and upload assignments through Google Classroom. At the start of the school year, the district set an initiative for all teachers and students to become familiarized with accessing computer programs remotely if schools closed or a class is in quarantine.

At the end of the day, many teachers are stressed out, which is what the district is hoping to alleviate.

On a one-to-five scale, 66 teachers ranked their stress/anxiety level at a three; 106 at a four and 87 at a five.

The school board meeting begins at 6 p.m. Tuesday in the Flathead High School flex room. People may also join remotely by visiting https://www.sd5.k12.mt.us, clicking on the meeting notification under “calendar and events,” and clicking on a provided link to register.

Reporter Hilary Matheson may be reached at 758-4431 or by email at hmatheson@dailyinterlake.com.