Superintendent Theron Schutte provided an update on the Marshalltown Community School District’s (MCSD’s) COVID-19 mitigation strategy during Tuesday night’s monthly board meeting and addressed some of the upcoming changes to safety policies.

“Everybody is anxious to be at the point of being able to further relax some of the mitigation strategies that we have implemented — especially, I would say, at the younger grades,” Schutte said.

Effective Tuesday, students were allowed to use their lockers again, with lockers optional for secondary students. During the last two years, furniture used for student collaboration had been removed from classrooms, and now, it is being brought back, once again allowing for student collaboration.

Schutte said that although it hasn’t happened yet, the district still hopes to ease up the lunch and recess rules and allow students from separate classrooms to mingle during those times.

“Since the beginning of the year, we’ve been making the opportunity available to get more and more kids out of the classroom and into the cafeterias without fully loading the cafeterias. We’re still trying to do it in a safe way,” Schutte said.

Schutte’s hope for the semester is to eventually go back to normal lunchroom usage with the goal of giving younger students a more typical school experience, and another eventual goal is to make masking optional instead of mandatory. With these objectives in mind, Schutte thought those decisions should be carefully considered before putting them into place.

“I really think it would be prudent to hold off until our next meeting to potentially make those adjustments,” Schutte said. “We’ve had record (COVID) numbers of both staff being negatively impacted by COVID, as well as students being negatively impacted. I’m quite concerned about our ability to continue to keep the ship afloat as far as school in session.”

COVID has had a profound impact on district staffing in the last several weeks, and Schutte said he did not want to worsen those challenges by lifting the mitigation strategies prematurely. He felt the masking should only be made optional when the county and MCSD COVID numbers had begun to level off and trend downward.

His opinion went largely unopposed, but board member Jan McGinnis questioned the loosening of restrictions on recess, lunch periods and lockers for reasons outside of COVID. She expressed concern about the time strain put on teachers who would have to show students how to use their lockers, how to behave in lunchrooms and how to act at recess so far into the school year.

“At this time of the year, we tend to have a very tight pacing schedule for our academics. So, if you’re going to start making these changes at this time of the year, we may need to look at our pacing guides, so our poor elementary teachers actually can do everything they’re being expected to do,” McGinnis said.

Schutte said the changes were not intended to change the class structure but to offer more latitude for students to be around other students. For some who started school during the pandemic, they have never experienced a lunchroom environment, making it difficult for them to know how to behave. Thus, the goal is to familiarize them with the new environment. McGinnis conceded to Schutte’s point.

“We forget that children aren’t born knowing how to operate in a cafeteria. We have to teach these behaviors,” McGinnis said.

Aside from Schutte’s update on the present and future COVID mitigation strategies, MCSD Communications Director Adam Sodders provided an update on the communications and marketing plan, which includes goals like increasing social media presence for the school district as well as presenting consistent branding across the board.

Alliant Energy was recognized as a Career Readiness Partner, and Training Specialist Lori Wildman and Senior Manager of Customer Operations Carla Gall accepted the recognition on behalf of the company. Dean Vaughn and Angie Shibe of Freedom Financial Group were also recognized for their $1,000 donation to Miller Middle School to support students participating in Junior Achievement programs.

In other business, the board:

Heard presentations from Woodbury Elementary, the Americorps Program, and on the 21st Century Grant and Full-Service Community Grant.

Heard an update from the Student School Board representatives.

Heard a presentation on Marshalltown High School attendance.

Approved the Spring Break 2022-2023 School Calendar.

Approved requests for proposal for Category 2 eRate equipment, workstation computer replacements for non-certified staff and Chromebook replacements.

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Contact Susanna Meyer at 641-753-6611 or smeyer@timesrepublican.com.