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Daugherty presents new re-entry updates

Updates to the Huntington County Community School Corporation (HCCSC) COVID-19 Re-entry Plan and the OSHA COVID-19 policy were discussed during the HCCSC Board of Trustees meeting on Monday, Jan. 10.
HCCSC Superintendent Chad Daugherty said that, in accordance with the Center for Disease Control (CDC), HCCSC has decided on several updates to its policy.

According to the slide show presented by Daugherty, “Students that are deemed a close contact (within three feet) of a positive case will need to be quarantined for five days, and if asymptomatic, they may return to school wearing a mask for five days. This allows students to return two days earlier and is therefore a shorter quarantine period.”

Daugherty emphasized that students will need to wear a mask for those five days in order to come back to school after the five day quarantine period.
Students will not need to quarantine if they are symptom free and fall under one of the categories below:

• If the student has had COVID-19 within the last 90 days with proof of positive test.

• Parents may administer a home COVID-19 test to document a positive result for their student. Parents will need to fill out a form provided by HCCSC in order to document this properly.

• If the student has been fully vaccinated or 14 days have passed since their last shot.

• If the student was wearing a mask properly all day.

After more discussion, the board approved the revisions to the re-entry plan.
Daugherty also presented the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) COVID-19 policy, which is required from businesses with 100 or more employees.

“We sent notice to them (employees) a couple of months ago when this first came out and said we’re not going to have a mandate, we will have accommodations,” Daugherty said. “So for those who don’t want to get the vaccine, they will be able to get tested weekly, but they will have to wear a mask if they don’t want to get vaccinated.”

Daugherty said that employees would have until Wednesday, Feb. 9, to comply with these parameters.

“When we don’t have people who comply with the policy, then there are fines,” Daugherty continued. “I believe that it’s $7,000 per incident.”

Daugherty gave the example that if an OSHA representative came in and saw that an unvaccinated individual was teaching without a mask, HCCSC could be fined for that.

From now until the Feb. 9 mark, Daugherty said HCCSC is going to work on getting vaccination status from employees, finding where they will have the testing site and how many employees will need to be tested. This policy will also be required for substitute teachers.

“I think there will be some people that don’t want to even wear a mask, so that will be something that will be part of a fallout on this, which I hope we don’t get to and I hope the Supreme Court will have a ruling on it. They did say they hope to have a ruling on it by Feb. 9,” Daugherty said.

In unrelated business, the Board of Trustees voted on its officials for this year and are as follows:
• President: Matt Roth.
• Vice President: Kevin Yarger.
• Secretary: Gary McClellan.
• Treasurer: Edette Eckert.
• Legislative Liaison: J. Ryan Wall.
• Bid Opening Committee: HCCSC Superintendent Chad Daugherty, Teasurer Eckert and HCCSC business manager once the position is filled.
• Common Wage Committee representative, business/industry representative and coordinator of the wage committee meetings: HCCSC business manager once the position is filled.

The board also voted that compensation for board members will remain $2,000 annually and $62 for special and executive meetings. Roth said that’s the maximum amount they can give for board compensation.

Due to the resignation of Scott Bumgardner, the board also approved John Trout to be the Interim Business Manager.

Superintendent Daugherty said that Trout has over 33 years of experience as an administrator, elementary principal, middle school principal and also was the superintendent at Madison Grant in Concord School District for almost 13 years.

“I’m really excited to join this team,” Trout said. “I respect what you guys are doing and to be in a support role with that is something I’m looking forward to along the way.”

In unrelated business, there were two presentations given to the board.
First, Huntington North High School Assistant Principal Rod Richison presented a request to allow students involved in the Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps (JROTC) to earn Physical Education (PE), Health and Personal Financial Responsibility (PFR) credits through the JROTC program beginning with the 2022-23 school year.

Richison explained that this would benefit the school by lowering class sizes for those three courses. He also said that it would benefit the finance teachers who currently spend most of their time teaching PFR classes. If JROTC students could earn that credit through the JROTC program, then the finance teachers would be able to offer electives like Advanced Accounting and Entrepreneurship.

One of the board members asked how many kids are in the JROTC program. Richison said there are “currently about 80.”

After more discussion, the board approved the request for the 2022-23 school year.

Next, Crestview Middle School teacher Mandy Barnum gave a presentation to promote the Washington D.C. trip this summer. Because of having to cancel the trip in previous years, this year’s trip will include seventh, eighth and ninth grade students.

Barnum said they go through the company WorldStrides.

“The trips have been solid. We have great course leaders. Everything works really well,” Barnum said.

She went on to explain that trips like this are beneficial for students because they are “being there experiences.”

“It helps them tie what they are learning to a place and to all their senses… it just makes it more real to them,” Barnum said. “And there’s nothing better than being where our founding fathers were. It’s really cool.”

The itinerary for the trip will include the following locations: Arlington National Cemetery, Vietnam Veterans Memorial, Capitol Hill, Lincoln Memorial, Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial, Smithsonian Museums, Washington Monument, White House, Pentagon Memorial, U.S. Holocaust Museum Memorial, Mount Vernon and National Cathedral.

Barnum says they are typically able to visit all these places and more on their trips.

This year’s trip is slated for June 10 through June 15. The price is a little bit more this year, but they added another day to the trip.

Barnum also detailed options offered to parents including the Full Refund Program if they are worried about having to cancel. There are also financial aid programs and payment plans parents can look into.

Between students and adults, Barnum said they have about 74 signed up.
“When March hits, that’s typically when I get my real number. Things fluctuate because that’s when things come due,” Barnum explained.

The board approved the field trip.