Area schools to close amid COVID-19 concerns; Cape, Scott County to offer meals for students during shutdown

Several school district in Cape Girardeau County and the surrounding area will close beginning this week.

Beginning on Wednesday, Cape Girardeau schools will shut down through April 3, as approved by the Cape Girardeau School Board during a special meeting Monday evening.

The decision comes in response to concerns over COVID-19, as area superintendents have worked closely with local and state health officials to monitor the latest developments in its spread.

“As you know, we’re approaching some unchartered waters here,” said Neil Glass, superintendent of the Cape Girardeau School District. “These are waters that we’ve not encountered before and it takes some strategy and some thinking through on our part to figure out how we’re going to deliver an education.”

Glass said district officials had been hoping to postpone school closures but ultimately made the decision to close sooner due to the community concerns about COVID-19.

At the end of the school day today, students in seventh through 12th grade will take home their 1:1 devices, said Howard Benyon, deputy superintendent of secondary education.

Should the school closures be prolonged, the school district will work to identify alternative methods of instruction, Glass said, noting the district is “not really set up to do that at this moment.”

“We don’t have internet access throughout the community. Our devices are limited basically down to fifth grade ... and below that, we would be searching for access,” Glass said. “And teachers aren’t really prepared to deliver a full-on curriculum with rigor virtually.”

Should the situation continue to worsen, Glass said district officials will reevaluate and the School Board may reconvene to discuss future solutions.

Along with social distancing, Glass said the district’s No. 1 priority is keeping children fed.

The district will implement a “feeding program” in which any students 18 or younger will be able to get a hot lunch and a sack breakfast for the following morning at any of the district’s elementary schools. Students will be able to pick up the meals between 10 a.m. and 12 p.m.

The following locations will be set up to provide meals beginning Wednesday:

• Alma Schrader Elementary, 1360 Randol Ave.
• Blanchard Elementary, 1829 Sprigg St.
• Clippard Elementary, 2880 Hopper Road
• Franklin Elementary, 1550 Themis St.
• Jefferson Elementary, 520 S. Minnesota St.

“We will ask for volunteers from local organizations, churches, even the school district to come in and help us serve those meals so that our kids aren’t going hungry while they’re away from school,” Glass said. “Because a lot of them depend on that meal throughout the week.”

Assistant superintendent Josh Crowell said the feeding program will be similar to the district’s summer school program, with the meals being offered in a “grab-and-go” style.

“We are not anticipating feeding kids actually in the school; they’ll be able to come grab the items and take them with them,” Crowell said.

Communications director Kristin Tallent said the district hopes to find community partners in churches or local businesses to help provide meals on the weekends.

“We could only [offer meals] Monday through Friday, based on our guidance through the state,” Tallent said. “ ... We also don’t know what our families’ work situations are going to be. It’s going to take a group effort to get people through this.”

In the event the district would move forward with alternative methods of instruction, Glass said the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education provides guidelines to schools with recommendations that students receive coursework with the same rigor offered by in-person instruction.

“[That’s] easier said than done because it’s hard to provide the same rigor outside of the classroom than there is inside the classroom,” Glass said. “ ... What it would take is that we upload videos and instructional materials and do a sort of virtual education, but we’re just not there yet and it’s going to take us a little bit to get there.”

As district officials continue to monitor the situation, Glass said more information would become available to students and parents.

“We just don’t need to panic at this point,” Glass said. “There’s going to be answers and we’re going to work through this. We’re going to mitigate as much as we can, and it’ll all be OK.”

Jackson

The largest school system in Cape Girardeau County, Jackson, also announced Monday it will “cancel school” for several weeks beginning today in response to COVID-19. The announcement by the Jackson School district came hours after Notre Dame Regional High School announced it, too, will suspend “face-to-face” classes starting Wednesday.

“We are moving through unchartered waters during this time of COVID-19,” Jackson superintendent John Link said in a letter Monday afternoon to district families. “After gathering information from our local health officials, other area school officials, as well as listening to parents and community leaders, we have decided to cancel school Tuesday, March 17th - Friday, April 3rd.”

Link said the district will use the rest of this week for “professional development and planning.”

“We realize the hardship being out of school places on families,” he continued. “We are developing a plan to assist our families during this time.”

In addition to canceling classes, Link said there will be “no school events or sports practices” the rest of this week.

Link said the district will use “all communication channels to alert families about how to access (school) resources in the coming days and weeks.” The district plans to provide frequent updates about the situation through the district’s website, texts, emails and social media.

“The safety of our students, staff and community is our highest priority,” he said. “We will continue to evaluate the next steps for our school as information becomes available.”

Notre Dame

At Notre Dame Regional High School, principal Tim Garner said discussions began last week about whether to temporarily close the school in accordance with a recommendation from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to discourage gatherings of 50 or more people.

In a letter to students, families, faculty and staff members Monday morning, Garner said traditional classroom activities at the school will be suspended until April 3 “when we will reevaluate” the situation. In the meantime, the school will continue with “online” learning.

“This decision was not made lightly, and we feel that it is the correct decision for the time being,” Garner said in the letter.

“As we transition to online learning, students that do not have a suitable device at home may check out a Chromebook by parent request from the (school’s) media center,” he said.

In addition to in-person classes, Notre Dame is also suspending all spring sports, activities and other events.

“We also ask parents to keep students at home as much as possible,” Garner said. “The effectiveness of this process is increased and infections are minimized if there is isolation between groups of people.”

There are approximately 500 students enrolled at Notre Dame, “the vast majority of whom at least have cellphones,” Garner told the Southeast Missourian and said smartphones and other devices will allow students to keep up with school assignments while school is closed. In addition, the school’s faculty will maintain office hours and will be available for students to reach by phone.

“We’re also looking at the possibility of having teachers record short video segments” to go with class instruction, Garner said.

The Notre Dame principal said the decision to temporarily suspend classes at Notre Dame was made in coordination with the Diocese of Springfield-Cape Girardeau, which, he said, will likely temporarily close all Catholic schools in the diocese in response to the coronavirus pandemic.

Scott County

Scott County announced on its Facebook page Monday afternoon they will also be closed today through April 3.

“All school activities, including athletic and extracurricular practices and competitions, will be canceled during the time school is closed,” according to the post. “It is also important to note that all outside groups will not be allowed on campus.”

The school district will provide lunch to all school-aged students in the district beginning Thursday. Details will be announced by the end of day Wednesday, according to the post.

Other districts

The following school districts will also suspend school operations at least through April 6, according to a news release:

• Advance
• Bernie
• Bell City
• Bloomfield
• Bunker
• Chaffee
• Clearwater
• Delta
• Dexter
• East Carter
• Fredericktown
• Guardian Angel
• New Madrid County
• Oak Ridge
• Oran
• Perryville
• Richland
• Scott County Central
• Sikeston public schools