The board of education approved minor changes to the Coming Back Together plan and received good news about staff vaccinations at their Monday, March 1 meeting. 

Superintendent Frank Harwood provided positive news on the COVID-19 vaccine front: all staff members who indicated they wanted to receive the vaccine will receive their first dose by Saturday, March 13 and their second by Saturday, April 3. 

“At this point, every staff member has been contacted about setting up an appointment to receive the vaccination,” Harwood said. “They should receive their second dose by that Saturday, April 3 date.”

Though no major changes were made to the district’s Coming Back Together plan, the board did agree to adopt a few minor changes based on new CDC recommendations. Three primary presumed-positive indicators were adopted: new cough, difficulty breathing, and loss of smell and taste; people showing these symptoms will be assumed positive for COVID-19. 

One speaker addressed the board during patron input after board discussion of the plan: elementary school teacher Victoria Mahaffey. Mahaffey, who said she wears a mask every day around her baby due to COVID-19 risk, urged the board to reconsider their treatment of elementary teachers. 

“I spent four years in college to become a teacher, not a babysitter, just for the board of education to take advantage of me during a pandemic,” Mahaffey said. “Why are our students spaced out not 24 inches in the classroom, while the board sits six feet apart here today?”

The board also unanimously approved assistant superintendent Ken Larsen’s proposal to refinance money from the 2011 and 2018 district bond issues.

The proposal, Larsen said, would save the district approximately $150,000. 

“This is our only chance to do this,” Larsen said. “We won’t have an option to refinance in the near future.”

At the beginning of the meeting, nutritionist Melissa Miller was recognized for receiving her Kansas Certificate in Child Nutrition Management; the Mill Valley journalism program also received recognition for their 2020 state championship.

The board’s next scheduled meeting is set for Monday, March 15.