The Ketchikan School Board is set to meet on Wednesday evening to hear the latest information from the acting superintendent about the Ketchikan School District s COVID-19 risk level assignments.
A COVID-19 outbreak in the community two weeks ago led to a surge in cases last week, many connected to students and staff at Ketchikan High School.
The district closed Kayhi to in-person instruction last week, but at the board s direction did not close other secondary schools in the district.
At the conclusion of an emergency board meeting last Wednesday, the board directed Acting Superintendent Katie Parrott to set Smart Start coronavirus risk levels for individual schools, rather than using one metric for the entire district.
 The Ketchikan School Board approved all items on its agenda at its regular meeting on Wednesday night with no opposition, and did not take any actions after discussing the Ketchikan School Districtâs budget priorities.
Prior to the budget discussion, Acting Superintendent Katie Parrott presented the board with the results of the districtâs budget survey as part of her superintendentâs report. No members of the board asked questions of Parrott at the end of the presentation.
The two items of new business on the agenda offered a quick change of topic. Board members unanimously approved an updated Memorandum of Agreement between the district and its two charter schools, Ketchikan Charter School and the Tongass School of Arts and Sciences, then approved a contract extension with district psychologist Brian Adams.
Though the Ketchikan School District has returned to low risk level operations, the Ketchikan School Board will meet virtually on Wednesday to review the results of a community survey before discussing the district s budget priorities.
Also at the meeting, the board will consider a contract extension and weigh revisions to the district s agreement with its charter schools.
Budget priorities
As a prelude for the board s budget discussion, Acting Superintendent Katie Parrott as part of her superintendent s report will share the results of the district s community-wide budget survey. The survey results are attached to the meeting agenda under the superintendent s report.
Posted by Eric Stone | Feb 26, 2021
Schoenbar Middle School. (KRBD file photo)
Ketchikan’s secondary students are set to return to full-capacity classrooms Monday. That’s after local emergency officials lowered the area’s COVID-19 risk level to “moderate”, citing a decline in the local positivity rate.
Middle and high school students in most Ketchikan schools had been attending only two days a week in person for most of February. That cut schools to about half their normal capacity, allowing students and staff more space to spread out and avoid spreading COVID-19.
The risk level was lowered Wednesday afternoon, but Acting Superintendent Katie Parrott told Ketchikan’s school board Thursday that students wouldn’t return to full-time classroom instruction until Monday.
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