Eaton school board approves updated calendar

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EATON — The Eaton Community Schools Board of Education voted on Monday, Aug. 10 to approve an updated 2020-21 school calendar where students will begin on Aug. 31.

Initially slated to begin Aug. 24, the extra week before students return will now be used as additional preparation time for teachers.

Superintendent Jeff Parker explained that they don’t know what September and October will hold, and that there’s a possibility that 100 percent remote learning will be required at some point during the school year.

“We need our teachers to be prepared, so that’s why I’ve communicated with you and recommending that the first student day start on Monday, Aug. 31,” Parker said. “That will give our staff and teachers three more days to get in and work with their Modern Classroom, their Modern Teacher, their Google Classrooms, get things set up so that they can be better prepared.”

All students with the last name A-I will begin on Aug. 31, and students with the last name J-Z will begin on Sept. 1. All students will attend on the same day beginning Sept. 2.

“Then on that Friday, Sept. 4, that’ll be a [professional development] day, because what we will do, after having all of the students here on [Sept. 2-3] is we’ll have all the teachers, obviously the administrators, will all be here,” he said. “We’ll say, ‘Hey, what worked, what didn’t work, what do we need to tweak,’ etc.”

He said the professional development day will be swapped with another professional development day that was scheduled for March 12, 2021. This will now be a day for students.

Parker also revealed the number of students in the district expected to participate in remote learning this year. The numbers by grade level are as follows: kindergarten (33), first grade (22), second grade (31), third grade (28), fourth grade (33), fifth grade (21), sixth grade (30), seventh grade (33), eighth grade (31), ninth grade (14), 10th grade (26), 11th grade (13), 11th grade at CTC (1) and 12th grade (11).

“It’s in the neighborhood of 16-17 percent of our students that are doing that, so the other way to look at it is it’s 83-84 percent that want to come back,” Parker said.

In other business:

  • Board member Terry Parks provided his monthly Miami Valley Career Technology Center update.

“There will be face-to-face meetings for incoming juniors on [Aug. 13]. There will be face-to face meetings with incoming seniors on [Aug. 14]. After those two days, based on the county health department’s recommendations, learning will revert to virtual for the CTC until further notice,” he said.

Parks said that this would impact a total of 1,807 students at MVCTC.

He also added that there will be a renewal levy, which he expects in November.

“We finally got the language back from the attorney on that,” he said. “It will not be an increase of any kind, it will just simply be a renewal.”

  • The board approved an accepted bid from Cardinal Bus Sales and Services, Inc. for the purchase of a 2022 Blue Bird T3FE 4004, an 84 passenger school bus which will cost $96,851, including a trade in of Bus 4, a Blue Bird TCFE3408 for a cash value of $1,500. $43,523.32 received from the School Bus Program Grant through the state of Ohio will be used toward the purchase of the bus.

The next Eaton Community Schools Board of Education meeting will be held on Monday, Sept. 14 at 6 p.m. at East Elementary School.

By Braden Moles

[email protected]

Reach Braden Moles at 937-683-4056 or on Twitter @BradenMoles

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