Haines schools to start Tuesday, continuing masking and testing protocols

Haines Schools will be starting in-person for the spring semester on Tuesday. Classes are starting in the midst of a COVID outbreak, the second largest to date, only after the biggest outbreak as classes started last August. KHNS’ Corinne Smith checked in with Haines Superintendent Roy Getchell ahead of the first day of school. 

KHNS: So the Haines community is experiencing a COVID outbreak at the moment, which was first reported last week. And today the state is reporting 32 cases, and likely there are more in the community. So how is the Haines school preparing to return this semester?

Superintendent Roy Getchell: You know, Corinne, it’s not just about preparation, it’s what we’ve been doing all along. And that is, you know, I think our parents know the routine, our staff know the routine, and we’re just gonna continue to follow that. We’ll pay a little bit of extra and special attention to some things like sanitisation. But we’ve got things in place already, that have been successful before that we’re confident are going to be successful this time around too.

KHNS: Will there be any kind of increases in testing at school?

Getchell: Not per se. So I wouldn’t say that we’re testing more, but we certainly have availability of at-home tests. I know that a lot of folks have heard about those or may have read about them. And, I’ve been fortunate enough to work with our EOC and have a good supply of those on hand for our parents, especially if they’ve returned from travel. We do have a travel protocol that we adopted at the end of December, that we’ll be implementing, and that we’ve communicated to parents about. But we’ve also got those tests available if parents want those and want to utilize those at home. So all you have to do is call our front office, and they’ll be available.

KHNS: That’s great. And another difficulty or challenge with the start of this year has been travel. And you were saying that your staff has also been affected?

Getchell: Again, so there’s been several things that we’re going through right now that aren’t new. And one of those is COVID. The other one is ferry challenges, and transportation challenges in the upper Lynn canal. So there’s no doubt that we’ve been impacted with staff, and I know our families have been as well. But you know, tomorrow all hands are going to be on deck. So folks might see different people doing different roles throughout the building, but our focus is on in person learning and keeping school open. With COVID, and with ferry challenges and transportation challenges, we know the important role that we play here at school, and then we’re going to be open and ready to go in the morning.

KHNS: Is there any update on the travel schedule for athletes? There will probably be changes coming up with the ferry schedule and travel changes, but are athletes planning to continue the season?

Getchell: Yes, we do it with planes, trains and automobiles (laughs) when you live up here. Anybody that lives in southeast Alaska, but I think especially the upper Lynn canal, knows this. We’ve got a fabulous Athletic Director, Lindsey Swinton who knows the folks to call, what works and what doesn’t. And so yeah, this is business as usual, having to reschedule and schedule again, and then reschedule after that is something that we’re used to. So we look forward to having Petersburg with us later this week for basketball, and we’ll put out information about those upcoming games. But yeah, there’s no changes to our planned schedule for student activities, whether it be athletics or other activities that we’ve got on tap.

KHNS: Is there anything our listeners should know coming up at the school board meeting tomorrow night?

Getchell: Well, as normal, we’re going to take a look at our mitigations. We do have a test to stay proposal that’s going to be in place that would be there, for the time when we go mask optional, so that students are identified as close contacts, were able to make that work and hopefully make that successful and safe and so forth, as we move forward. We’re also looking at our risk levels, trying to define those a little bit better. It’s been really hard to do that. Obviously, right now, our risk is very elevated. But we have had times in the last 12 month period where our risk level has been low. And so we’d like to be able to reduce some of the mitigations during those times. And so we’re going to be taking a look at that as well. But then also some business as usual. COVID takes a lot of our energy and a lot of our time, but we are in the business of education and things moving forward. So we’re going to be talking about some academic things and some ways to support our students in different ways. Those are the main things that we’re going to be looking forward to. And we always appreciate the support and grace and understanding of our community as we work together to make all those things happen.

KHNS: Great, thank you Superintendent Getchell, thanks for your time.

Getchell: Absolutely, you take care. 

 

The Haines school board will hold its regular meeting at 7 p.m. Tuesday January 4th in the school library and via Zoom. Here is the Zoom login details.