OKCPS Board hears COVID report, still determined for district to stay open

Last Updated on January 10, 2022, 7:57 PM | Published: January 10, 2022

OKLAHOMA CITY (Free Press) — At the Oklahoma City Public Schools Board of Education, Supt. Sean McDaniel gave numbers that show the rapid growth of COVID effects on the district.

He also said that shutting down the district where all instruction was virtual would be a last resort because there are so many families in the district where the oldest child in the family becomes the daytime parent when their school is closed.

Instead, they are already instituting incremental and temporary closures of schools and bringing them back to in-person learning when quarantine periods run out and illness subsides in staff and students.

Friday, the district shifted two schools to asynchronous learning. Over the weekend, two more schools – three campuses – were shifted to asynchronous learning.

• Staff sickness causes OKCPS to add two more schools to all-virtual list

Also, from hard-won experience in 2020, district staff determined that there is more flexibility with asynchronous learning compared to synchronous learning when a school has to go to virtual learning because of high infection numbers. Asynchronous learning allows students to wait until parents get home to help with studies.

The Board also tackled transfer policy issues Monday night, appointed new members to the bond committee for the upcoming bond election, and cleared regular business items.

By the numbers

The numbers given to show the rapid growth of COVID among teachers and staff by McDaniel were sobering.

To compare, McDaniel said that at the end of the day on Friday, the district showed 377 students + 220 teachers for a total of 597 actively positive which comes to 1.6% of total student population.

Then, Monday, by 9:30 a.m. 769 were actively positive. By 3:00 p.m. there was a total of 894.

Those quarantined at 9:30 a.m. Monday morning were 2,464 (8.5%). By 3:00, that number had grown to 2,652 (9.6%).

Student transfers

Assignment to schools and transfers of students between schools has always had policies government the process. But, Monday, the board made adjustments to transfer policies.

Capacity of the school that parents want a student transferred into is and will continue to be one of the factors for deciding if a student is eligible for transfer.

Also, staying in place are restrictions for students who have had discipline and/or attendance issues at the school where they currently are assigned.

Specifically, a student who has the following discipline issues will continue to not be eligible for a transfer:

• Violation of a school regulation,
• possession of an intoxicating beverage, low-point beer, as defined by Section 163.2 of Title 37 of the Oklahoma Statutes, or missing or stolen property if the property is reasonably suspected to have been taken from a student, a school employee, or the school during school activities, or
• possession of a dangerous weapon or a controlled dangerous substance while on or within two thousand (2,000) feet of public school property, or at a school event, as defined in the Uniform Controlled Dangerous Substances Act.

Changes to the policy establish a more specific formula for determining capacity. See the changes in page 3 the markup copy of the policy change below:

F-04-STUDENT-SCHOOL-ASSIGNMENT-AND-TRANSFERS-revised-12-13-21

Bond Oversight Committee

Appointments to the Bond Oversight Committee were made in preparation for the next bond election later in the year.

The composition of the committee is specified in the following policy:

C-04_BOND-CAMPAIGNS-revised-11-8-21-

The following people were appointed to the committee Monday. Some board members appointed a representative from the community to serve on the committee in their stead.

Bond-2022-Bond-Oversight-and-Planning-Committee-Sheet1

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The next meeting of the OKCPS Board of Education will be February 7 at 5:30 p.m. in the Clara Luper Center at 600 N. Classen.

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