The Carbon School District (CSD) recently announced their School Reopening Plan for the upcoming school year. Superintendent Lance Hatch took time to visit Castle Country Radio to discuss the plan.

The CSD has worked closely with the Utah State Board of Education and the Governor’s Office to come up with their School Reopening Plan. “Right now, one of the main things we want to make sure people understand that it’s a work in progress, it’s a living document and it seems like everyday we’re getting a little more information or some type of adjustment that we need to make. So, we’re going to keep the links online, every school’s web page, the district’s web page, there’s a link to the School Reopening Plan and that’s going to be updated regularly. So that is one thing important to keep in mind,” stated Superintendent Hatch. Any changes or updates to the School Reopening Plan can be found easily by visiting your child’s school website..

“The heart of our plan is Healthy Kids Should Be in School. We have the best learning opportunities available for the students are at the school. We kind of started to make that commitment early on that whatever we need to do to make that happen is what we’re willing to do. So at that point we’ve kind of decided whatever that has to look like let’s make it happen,” said Superintendent Hatch. One of those important points in the School Reopening Plan is the face coverings which will be required by students, faculty and staff. This is item that comes down from the Governor’s Office and will be implemented in all schools in the state.

“The Executive Order requires face coverings, it does not require masks, so we want to make that distinction. You know there’s a lot of people who have kind of some trouble with masks and the Executive Order explicitly allows face shields as an option. We kind of like that option and we’re going to make sure there’s plenty of face shields available for those who would prefer that. We believe that when kids arrive, and we’re rolling, masks or face coverings or face shields are going to be a secondary issue, the main thing is we’re back,” said Superintendent Hatch. An announcement was made on Friday by the Governor’s Office that face coverings will not have to be used when students are attending outdoor recess or while participating in sporting events.

There is a good thing that came out of the early closure in March and that was the ability to conduct school lessons online. “One of the things, like you said, we learned last school year was how to broadcast a class, how to share instruction with somebody who’s at home. So, the student can tune in from their home, they can see what the teacher is teaching, they can hear what’s happening. They can even participate by making comments and whether that’s typing in the chat or verbal comments,” said Superintendent Hatch. CSD is pretty excited that they now have the ability to conduct online learning for students. This will be a benefit for not only students but for teachers who may not be able to instruct their students for one reason or another.

To learn more about the CSD School Reopening Plan visit their website at https://www.carbonschools.org/