In its regular meeting Monday, Aug. 10, the Crosslake Community School Board discussed options for opening to students when the school year begins.
School Director Cliff Skagen told the board that the charter school will follow the same model as standard public school in terms of in-person learning, where the number of COVID-19 cases in the county for every 10,000 residents dictates whether schools operate with full in-person learning, full distance learning or a hybrid model.
However, if cases dictate grades K-6 be in person and 7-12 in distance learning, the school would seek to keep grades 7 and 8 in person as well.
Currently, Crow Wing and Cass counties have fewer than 10 cases per 10,000 residents - allowing for in-person learning - but Skagen said numbers are near the 10 cases mark and increasing.
The school’s task force for COVID-19 preparedness has discussed a number of options to best maintain social distancing with in-person learning, including moving some classes to Whitefish Lodge or even Crosslake’s Town Square if the weather permits. If students are learning in person, Skagen felt as though things like small-scale field trips would still be possible.
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Regardless of how the school opens, distance learning will be available to any student or family that wants it.
“If parents don’t want to send their kids to school because of COVID-19 or for whatever reason, distance learning still needs to be an option,” Skagen said.
The board approved the CCS COVID-19 task force’s spreadsheet as the school’s baseline policy regarding virus preparedness.
The board also agreed to open its online learning to grades K-4, using it as an option for distance learning for all grades should the need arise.
“We were looking at this before, but when COVID-19 came about … We had a lot of requests for online learning,” Skagen said. “We still have a lot of requests for online learning, as we see enrollment starting to boom. This is another option to accommodate parents and students looking for online learning.”
In other action Monday, the board:
Approved a resolution for membership with the Minnesota State High School League, allowing high school students to participate on the school’s trap shooting team.
Approved the school’s testing calendar for the 2020-2021 school year.
At the end of the meeting, board chair Mitch Swaggert informed the board that it will vote to approve his letter of resignation in its next regular meeting. The board will also vote on his replacement at that time.
Dan Determan may be reached at 218-855-5879 or dan.determan@pineandlakes.com. Follow him on Facebook and on Twitter at www.twitter.com/@PEJ_Dan.
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