RSD Superintendent Roger Trail: Screening system has worked well

ROYAL CITY — Royal School District schools are remaining open, at least for now.

Superintendent Roger Trail said the surge in COVID-19 cases has had a significant impact on Royal schools, especially when it comes to staffing. Trail updated Royal School Board members at their regular meeting Monday.

Trail said the biggest challenge has been keeping adequate staffing as coronavirus cases increase in and around Royal City. The district had 14 new cases from Friday to Monday, Trail said, and the case rate (the number of cases per 100,000 people) in the Royal City area is increasing.

Royal Intermediate Principal Angie Baldus said Trail had been pressed into service as a substitute at RIS last week. Royal High School Principal Courtney McCoy said 75 RHS students were required to go into quarantine last week.

All schools statewide have requirements for staffing, and schools will be required to go to all-online instruction if too many teachers and other staffers are unavailable to meet those requirements. Trail said there are a number of benchmarks that would require schools to go to all online learning. As of now, the staffing requirement is the one that the district is having the most trouble meeting.

Royal started the school year in August in a hybrid model, with students at school part time and taking online classes part time. The district has been able to maintain that schedule, and Red Rock Elementary Principal David Andra said it was beginning to feel like a normal school year. A few kids have been sent to the principal’s office recently, the first time that’s happened all year, Andra said.

Trail said parents and staff have been very disciplined, with parents keeping kids home and staff staying home, if they don’t feel well. The screening system established when school started has worked well, he said.

As a result Royal has been able to stay open in the hybrid schedule, Trail said, but the number of infections and quarantines is rising.

Like all schools statewide, Royal schools closed in mid-March and were closed through the end of the 2019-20 school year. Royal district officials opted to reopen for on-campus instruction part time, rather than continue with all-online instruction, at the start of the new school year.