JAMESTOWN — Isaac Seevers has a simple message for students in the Greeneview Local School District.
“Mask up, back up, and wash up,” the superintendent said as the district prepares to reopen — and hopefully remain open — beginning Tuesday, Aug. 25.
“Across the country we are seeing schools open and stay open because they have a good system in place and staff and students are willing to do their part to keep everyone safe,” Seevers said. “We are also seeing schools who are unable to stay open, and in many of those cases it is because they did not adhere to the guidelines.”
Seevers doesn’t want Greeneview to be one of those schools.
“We must all do our part to be responsible and respectful,” he said. “The protocol in place is there to give us the best opportunity to sustain in-person learning. We need positive support and reinforcement at home and in school to ensure students are complying.”
All three Greeneview buildings are set up to help make in-person learning possible.
“We have removed unused desks and many pieces of the extra furniture from our classrooms to space the desks out as far as possible,” Seevers said. “We have reminders in our restrooms, on the floors, on our front doors to visually remind students and staff to wash their hands, wear a mask, and keep social distancing.”
The daily schedule has been tweaked to allow more spacing for kids in 9th-12th grades.
“We added a third lunch at our high school in order to adequately space students out at the tables,” Seevers said.
The biggest change to the Greeneview plan was the mask order from the state.
”This wasn’t a choice, but it was the major shift we had to make,” Seevers said.
Despite the the masks and various reminders throughout the buildings, the Greeneview administration wants students who chose the in-person option (about 25 percent picked online learning) to feel like it’s just a typical day.
“This is a huge transition, but our staff has done an excellent job to prepare to make sure that school looks and feels as much like normal school as possible,” Seevers said.”
Seevers also stressed patience from Greeneview families.
”Maintain open communication with the staff about how your child is dealing with the transition,” he said. “Please be patient as we work to modify plans on the fly. We have a solid plan, but we know that there will need to be constant adjustments as we learn more about how our buildings operate. The major lesson we learned in the spring is that there needs to be a strong partnership between parents and teachers.”
