Hamilton Southeastern School Superintendent Allen Bourff covered a number of topics in a video message released Friday, including his recommendation on junior high school students moving to in-person classes.
“I will be making a recommendation to the school board…to shift Junior Highs to an in-person, 4-day week, beginning Monday, April 12,” said Bourff in the video message. The final decision rests with the seven-member board of trustees, which is set to meet at 7pm Wednesday night.
Bourff points to a survey conducted with families of junior high school students, showing 86% support for in-person instruction, even if school officials are not always able to adhere to CDC guidelines. With the new guidance of 3-foot social distancing, Bourff says “even that will be difficult in some circumstances.”
73% of the respondents favor 4-days-a-week in class over the hybrid system.
Of those families with in-person students, 38% did not respond to the survey. 64% of families with virtual students failed to respond.
“I want you to be aware that without a response, we will assign in-person students to an in-person schedule and virtual students will remain virtual until the end of the semester,” the superintendent said.
Hundreds of HSE Schools staff members are in the process of receiving COVID vaccinations, with the help of the Fishers Health Department. Bourff says this “will bring a level of safety to our staff that they haven’t had since the pandemic began.”
The number of student COVID positive cases has declined over the last couple of months. As of Friday morning, HSE Schools had 17 possible cases for the week. Bourff says the weekly positive student count in January was consistently in the 70s. The Fishers Health Department community COVID rating has recently been lowered from the highest, Level 4, down to Level 3, with numbers continuing to move downward.
In another matter covered in the video message, there will be a change in notifying families of individual school building closures. Administrators will now use the telephone messaging system, along with other communication modes, to notify parents and students of a single building closure, as happened in recent days at Fishers Junior High School. Bourff encourages families to keep information up-to-date on the Skyward system.
Finally, Dr. Bourff expressed the “shock and sorrow of the HSE family” at the death of Fishers High School Junior Raymond Jumper. He collapsed while playing basketball at the Fishers YMCA and later died.
You can view the entire video at this link.
