BEATRICE – Beatrice Public School District officials are considering possible schedule changes for after the Thanksgiving Holiday weekend, given the recent rise in coronavirus cases in the area.


One potential change is going to all online learning for one week, after the holiday.
"As we come closer to the holidays, that's something that everybody's concerned about....Halloween, and what super-spreader events will be available. Those are things we don't want to be in conflict with, but we also have to think about the back side of those and how they impact what we're doing at school."
Superintendent Jason Alexander says a concern is that with people traveling to see family during Thanksgiving, it may affect the number of positive virus cases that could impact the district.


The Beatrice School Board met Thursday night on the potential changes. Assistant Superintendent Dr. Jackie Nielsen said following the one-week online learning, the district could then return to having students in classrooms from December 7th to the 18th.  Nebraska’s Education Commissioner is allowing districts to have more teacher professional development time, which could fit into the adjusted schedule prior to Christmas break.


Nielsen said, "What we would like to do is use that (December) 21st and 22nd as professional development time. If we have to go to a Tier three or Tier Four, we're going to have to apply for a waiver from the state on instructional time minutes."


Nielsen said the one week of online learning would require some schedule flexibility, so that students are not continually in a Zoom learning session all day long.
School officials are taking a wait-and-see approach about the schedule after the Christmas break. Superintendent Alexander and board members noted that any decision to alter plans needs to be communicated to parents as soon as possible.


"We need to make families aware of that as soon as we can so they can adjust their plans accordingly. It makes some sense in terms of what we've learned over the course of the last two or three months dealing with this. In June or July as we made these plans, we forgot to remember that we're gonna write this plan up and its going to look very good, but the virus doesn't really care. We've learned that we have to adapt to the virus as it comes in....not the virus having to adapt to our plan, because that's not going to happen."


Under a schedule change, some students would still come to school buildings….as an example, the BPS special education students.
Winter sports and activities seasons are getting underway. Officials say sports practices can be held and safety protocols will have to be applied to competitions that draw spectators.  Alexander said, "Kudos to the NSAA....I will give them a lot of credit because I know they've been in a tough position, as well. As we came upon the fall championships, they've been very clear about what their expectations were and they gave great guidance to us."  Superintendents and activities directors of Trailblazer Conference schools will be meeting to discuss consistency in how activities are held.


With any schedule change, the Beatrice School District would continue food service operations and paraprofessionals would also continue to work.
Dr. Nielsen said parents will likely be notified next Monday about any schedule changes.


Currently, Beatrice Public Schools is reporting nine active Covid-19 cases in the district….five at the high school….three at the middle school….and one at the Beatrice Community Preschool.