December 8, 2020: Pandemic Viewer Questions
Host Don Mayhew sits down with Associate Superintendent for Instruction, Dr. Matt Larson, and Associate Superintendent for Human Resources, Dr. Eric Weber to answer viewer questions after the Pandemic Challenges LPS Board Update episode that aired on Friday, Dec. 4.
Do you have a question you’d like answered? Submit your questions here.
Join us for our next “LPS Board Update” on Friday, Dec. 18 at noon. You will be able to find it on the LPS website, the LPS Facebook page, and the LPS YouTube Channel.
Video Transcript
Mindy Burbach
Hello, I’m Mindy Burbach communications director for Lincoln Public Schools.
Don Mayhew
And I’m Don Mayhew, Lincoln Board of Education member. We started a new series to help share what is happening at Lincoln Public Schools. This gives our community an opportunity to hear from our staff and board members and ask questions.
Mindy Burbach
And every Friday before our Board of Education meeting, we will air 30 minute recorded show at noon that highlights some of the work taking place across Lincoln Public Schools. And then on Tuesdays at 5p.m., prior to the Board of Education meetings, like right now, we will answer some of your questions that you’ve sent into us after the episode. If you have any questions during our live show, please type them into the Facebook chat, and we will try to get to them as we have time.
Don Mayhew
Joining us tonight to help us answer some of your questions, since our first episode on Friday, our associate superintendent for instruction Dr. Matt Larson and associate superintendent for human resources, Dr. Eric Weber, Matt and Eric, thank you both so much for joining us.
Matt Larson
Thank you.
Eric Weber
You bet
Don Mayhew
Last Friday, we spoke with Dr. Joel and Dr. Rauner about the challenges of running a school district during a pandemic. We had several follow up questions that came in from the LPS Facebook page. The first question I have here is from Lisa Marrow. And she asks, after yesterday’s announcement of all the public positive cases this week at LPS, is it still the safest? Dr. Larson? Let’s start with you. The team holds weekly meetings with the health department. What has the conversation been around the latest numbers of positive cases in our community and whether it’s safe to continue with in person learning?
Matt Larson
Thanks, Mr. Mayhew, that that’s a great question. And we know parents have that concern. And as you mentioned, what’s really important is that we do meet at least weekly with the Lincoln-Lancaster County Health Department. We discuss the current situation in the community, review our protocols, go over anything we might want to be aware of, reconsider, think about as we move forward, I think it’s important that one of the things we’ve discussed is the fact that our school system is a subset of the overall community. And so to some degree, the cases within the Lincoln Public Schools will mirror that growth or decline that that’s occurring in the community. What we can control are those seven hours when our students are in school, and making sure that they follow all of our protocols. And I have to say, we’re extraordinarily proud of our students and our staff. They’re doing a great job following those protocols. You might recall, Mr. Mayhew, back early when we announced the plan. Some members were concerned that our students wouldn’t wear masks, for example, those face coverings and boy, mass compliance, it has been really high, that hasn’t been an issue from the youngest student to high school students. So our students are doing a great job of following those protocols. And that makes a real difference for us. And we in the health department also agree that school is a safe place to be, it’s probably one of the safer places to be because for those seven hours when students are in school, we can guarantee that they are following those safety protocols and precautions that need to be in place. The question is what happens when they leave school, when they leave school, they get together with their friends, maybe at a friend’s house, they have a you know they have a sleepover they do what kids do, then younger children may go to a daycare and in all those places, then those protocols, those safety measures may not be in place to the degree that they are in school. And so it’s a reminder, that really for school to be a safe place, we also need the entire community to be a safe place and follow those protocols of wearing a face covering, maintaining physical distance when you can, washing your hands… all of these things, monitoring your own symptoms yourself, are critically important for the entire community just as they are for us when we’re in school, but we’re really confident that school remains a safe place for students and staff members.
Don Mayhew
When I was talking with Dr. Joel, last week, one of the questions I asked him was what could the community do to support the work happening in the classroom? And that was his response. We just need the whole community to follow the safety guidelines. And I appreciate you responding with that as well. Our next question comes from Sidney Melia are, are there steps you could take to mitigate the risk of teachers being in school, such as not having school two weeks after major holidays? Now, I know that this has been a concern for a lot of folks. Our position has been that our top priority is what’s best doing what’s best for kids. And we know that this has been a very difficult year for our teachers. There’s a lot of concern in the community and on social media about the effect that this year is having on our teachers. I know this is something that we take seriously, Eric, what are some of the measures that we have in place to help reduce the risk of spread among your staff?
Eric Weber
Yeah, we did talk at great length about that option in terms of returning back to school and when’s the right time for that to happen, but the the question is, would it really accomplish the goal of reducing the risk of spread if we extend that out any further? And again, it goes back to something that Dr. Larson mentioned. If they’re not in our buildings, where are they? Right? Well, they’re out in the community. So when is that right time to bring them back? If they are in our buildings, we know that they’re following those protocols that we’ve talked about. And that in itself is reducing the risk of spread in our community and also in our schools. So that that was an important factor as we thought about when is that right time to bring people back. And we’re doing what we can in the schools to mitigate the risk, we think we’ve put into place good protocols, we are adjusting and tweaking as we meet with the health department. Occasionally, they will ask us to to look at some data or or to change something. And we do that in concert with them. But I think additionally, to your question, Don, we are working individually with staff who request accommodations, to see how we can meet their needs, while helping them to continue to serve our students in our schools, staff will have certain needs that they may have in terms of PBE, there could be other accommodation, sometimes staff aren’t able to work because of exposure or quarantine. And we’re just trying to come right alongside those staff members, and and be a partner with them to help them to navigate those situations so that they can continue to do what they need to do in terms of the virus out in the community or their own exposures, but also continue to be able to serve our students when they’re able to. And this is an ongoing effort, you know, we’re going to continue to do what we can to reduce the risk of spreading our school by following just those three W’s right where your mask, wash your hands and watch your distance. It’s really as simple as those three W’s. But from an employee standpoint, we really are just trying to be partners with them, to help them to, to to have the accommodations and to to meet the needs of our students on a day to day basis based on what’s going on with them as employees.
Don Mayhew
I know you’ve been having a lot of conversations with the president of the teachers union, making sure that we are hearing their concerns. Speaking of protective equipment, we have a quick follow up question for you, Eric, Alinda Stelk on Facebook is asking if the district has considered providing teachers with N95 masks.
Eric Weber
Not across the board. There are some environments and situations where an N95 may be more appropriate. For example, we have talked about situations where we might have a mask-exempt student and an N95 might be appropriate. We also have had certain individual staff accommodations that have come in where a physician along with that staff member has made a request for additional PPE. And so we have worked with that employee and that physician to to make those accommodations. And sometimes that is an N95 but we have not talked about N95s across the board.
Don Mayhew
Thanks, Eric. Matt, back to you. We’ve got a question from Cecilia Dennis, who asks, What can we do to ensure that our children have enough time to eat? I understand the protocols during the pandemic as cleaning and disinfecting is a huge task. But this is leaving our children hungry and only time for a few bites? How are our schools working to make sure that students have enough time to eat during lunch with all of the extra cleaning protocols?
Matt Larson
That’s another great question. Mr. Mayhew. And, and here’s what I can say. And I can say from firsthand experience. I, I’ve been out in our schools during during lunchtime, and in fact, have helped supervise lunch in some of our schools, when they’ve been short staff, for whatever reason, and I have been incredibly impressed with how our building leaders and teachers have responded to that lunch issue. What buildings are doing is they’re really increasing the number of people who helped supervise and manage lunch, there are extra teachers in there, extra custodial support in there, that they’re being very efficient, how they work students through the lunch line, get them seated. They’re going around and you know, handing out napkins and answering kids questions and getting them things and, boy, the minute they’re done, everybody’s pitching in to wipe down those tables so that there’s very little time in between. I would say, you know, what I noticed was there really wasn’t an issue. I haven’t seen an issue with students not having sufficient time to eat. What’s important, I think, is that we if we have children, we encourage them to be efficient themselves, you know, not to not to waste time to get right through that line. Sit down, don’t socialize first at lunch, you know, eat your lunch first and, and then you can do your your socialization aspects of lunch. But if there is an individual concern, what I would encourage any parent to do is to reach out to the principal and and talk about the fact that your child maybe is not having enough time to eat lunch, because what I’ve seen, and each building where this is occurred, if there is a student, for whatever reason, doesn’t have enough time, our principals, our teachers care about each and every student and they’ll work with that individual student to make sure they get the extra time they need, so that they they have their lunch and don’t feel rushed or stressed about it, and then get them back to class as soon as possible. So I think the buildings are doing a good job managing all of that cleaning and making sure there is enough personnel in place to make it run efficiently. And if there’s a problem reach out to the principal, but from what I’ve seen, it’s really working quite well.
Don Mayhew
Fantastic. All right. I am not seeing that we haven’t any other questions just yet. Dr. Larson and Dr. Weber, thank you so much for taking the time to talk with us today. To the folks who are watching. As Dr. Larson mentioned, these have been excellent questions. The quality of this broadcast goes way up when we have your participation and are able to respond to your questions directly. So please keep those questions coming and we will do our best to respond. Be sure also to join us for our regular board meeting at six o’clock today. You can watch it on our website at lps.org or on the LNK TV education channel.
Mindy Burbach
That’s right, and you can join us for the LPS board update on Facebook at noon on Friday, December 18. And if you have any questions you would like for us to answer you can submit them on our LPS Facebook page or on our website lps.org. Just click on the blue contact us button and click on board of education and just put in the subject line, LPS Live Board Update and we would be happy to answer those questions for you. And with that, thank you for joining us.
Don Mayhew
Thanks again to Matt and Eric and good night.
Updated December 9, 2020
