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MLSD delays start of school year, sticks with options

by CHARLES H. FEATHERSTONE
Staff Writer | August 14, 2020 12:59 AM

MOSES LAKE — The Moses Lake School Board voted to delay the start of the school year by one week but left the district’s plan to restart school this fall otherwise unchanged.

Classes are now slated to start, both in schools and online, on Wednesday, Sept. 9, and the delay is intended to give teachers more time to get ready for class and parents more time to choose which option they want for their kids.

Two weeks ago, the board voted unanimously to give parents and students the options of full-time, in-class instruction; a blended model combining in-class and remote instruction; or full-time remote learning.

Recently, Grant County Health District issued a recommendation that schools not reopen for in-class instruction this fall, stating the rate of COVID-19 cases in Grant County is far too high.

Several school districts, including Quincy and Warden, have approved online-only instruction plans, at least starting out the school year.

“It is gut-wrenching to say to you that schools cannot reopen,” Grant County Health Officer Alexander Brzezny told members of the school board during an online meeting Thursday. “It’s neither safe, nor will it make us healthier.”

Board President Elliott Goodrich, however, wondered why Brzezny was not ordering that the schools remain closed, given that as county health officer, he has issued health orders in the past banning school athletics during very smoky days in fire season or coping with influenza outbreaks in schools.

“You have the authority to shut down schools,” Goodrich said. “Are you issuing a health order?”

“No,” Brzezny responded. “That’s a board decision.”

Goodrich took Brzezny to task and said that by failing to issue an order, he was “passing the buck.”

“If it’s serious enough to issue recommendations, it’s serious enough to issue orders,” he said. “If you are unable to stand up and issue a health order, we are unable to take you seriously.”

Goodrich told Brzezny that if he issued a health order mandating the schools stay closed, the Moses Lake School District would adhere to that order.

“We as a school district will not violate a health order,” he said.

Phil Riche, executive vice president of the Schools Insurance Association of Washington, the organization that insures the Moses Lake School District, told board members that the school district would be insured should any student sue claiming he or she caught COVID-19 at school through district negligence.

“As long as it’s only a health district recommendation, you’re still covered,” Riche said. “But once an order is issued, you would have to comply in order to have coverage.”

Riche also said, however, that it’s possible the district will also be sued by parents claiming that by not opening, the district failed to provide their children with an education as mandated by the state constitution.

“We expect those claims,” he said.

Board members considered several modifications to the reopening plan based on the health district’s recommendations, keeping all instruction online until the COVID-19 case rate falls to 75 per 100,000 people for a two week period, and not allowing full-time, in-class instruction until the case rate drops below 25 per 100,000 for a two-week period.

However, the Moses Lake School Board rejected those modifications as unrealistic, as was adhering to the health district’s strict recommendations on social distancing, hand washing, quarantining and masking as the way to drive down COVID-19 cases over a six- to eight-week period.

“The way I see this, the odds of this community getting down to 25 or 75 are non-existent,” Goodrich said. “The odds of abiding by the guidance are slim. Our community is not going to do everything the health district tells us to do. We haven’t so far, and we’re not going to start.”

“It’s not a realistic expectation,” Goodrich added, noting that he wears a mask everywhere he goes.

Even as the MLSD prepares classrooms for kids this fall, Superintendent Josh Meek ruefully noted that the district is not likely done with its school reopening plan.

“I have zero confidence that we have heard the last of this issue,” he said.