School Board discusses student, staff morale, COVID-19 vaccination timeline for teachers

The Lincoln School Board, in their regular meeting Monday Jan. 11, heard a number of updates on how the faculty and students are handling the return to school.

Classes resumed in-person Jan. 4, after more than a month of online distance learning prompted by an increase in possible COVID-19 cases and close contacts in the community.

Both Lincoln High Senior Lindsey Weisner, the student representative in the meeting, and Lincoln Schools Superintendent Jen Packer noted initial issues with morale among the students and staff during the first week back in class are improving.

Weisner said the return to school was “a little bit hard to get used to,” but thinks her fellow students finally settled back in this week. She said morale seems to be a little lower for the senior class, due to how rough their senior year has been, but she said for the most part everyone else seems to be doing all right.

Packer agreed the return to school “was a little rough week last week.”

“It was tough on teachers and students coming back, but today there was a little bit different feel,” she said.

Packer said there has also been a struggle getting some of the older kids to wear their masks consistently.

“Young kids don’t seem to have a problem,” she said. “They were doing a good job in the elementary, but the older students…were struggling.”

Packer said that seems to be improving, and explained she has been talking to faculty members about the importance of wearing their masks and being role models for students. “I have seen less unmasked kids around, so it’s getting to be a norm, I think.”

Packer said they have a lot of people trying to raise morale at the school or come up with ideas to help. For her part, Packer, said she’d like to implement an “open-period” procedure for the senior class. She said if all the seniors pass everything this semester, they would all have enough credits to be able to have an open period.

During that period, which would require parental permission and would have to be during the first or seventh period of the day, the seniors would be required to leave the campus, unless they had an approved reason to stay.

“It would benefit all the seniors if they wanted to do that,” Packer said. “It’s an incentive, possibly, to help soften this senior year that’s so rough, and it would allow some of them to be able to go to work right after school earlier.”

She said it’s been done for seniors at schools like in CMR and has worked out well.

Packer also recognized the Lincoln PTSO for their efforts to help both the students and staff, which includes tentatively scheduling the Missoula Children Theater in April.

“Having MCT coming, and having things as normal as possible, while still taking the necessary precautions, is the best,” Packer said. “it’s always kind of down this time of year because it’s so dark all the time, and cold. We just have to plunge through and help everyone get through it, I think.”

Packer said the school administration would like to advertise for a couple of aide positions, which could help preschool, the high school resource room and possibly help Packer with 7-12 interventions and assessments. She said it would be a good use of the grant money that would lighten the load for teachers a bit.

Athletic Director Shane Brown reported that basketball season is underway.

“Our numbers for each team, it was a rough weekend for us,” he said. “but the kids we have are excited to play and they’re looking forward to the games. I would say spirits are up.”

He noted that he’s worked out a deal with some schools to allow a couple Lynx fans per dressed athlete at away games, which he said was part of the idea behind splitting the home and away games each weekend.

Brown told the BVD the girls’ team still has just five players, while the boys team now has six, three high school players and three brought up from the 8th grade to play.

School Board President Aaron Birkholz provided an update on the status of COVID-19 vaccinations for the district’s teaching staff.

During the Dec. 28 special board meeting, some teachers voiced reservations about returning to in-person classes before the vaccine became available.

Birkholz explained that under the original vaccination plan, Lincoln teachers who wanted the vaccine were expected to get the first round of the two-dose vaccine Monday. At the time of school board meeting, Birkholz estimated the teachers could instead be seeing the vaccines in two to three weeks, but that’s uncertain. Changes to the vaccinations allocation plan announced by Gov. Greg Gianforte Jan. 4 radically changed the timetable by bumping teachers and emergency responders to the third round of vaccinations, which isn’t expected to begin until mid-March. Birkholz, who also serves as president of the Lincoln Volunteer Ambulance and as Emergency Medical Services manager for the Lincoln Rural Fire District is concerned about the revisions to the vaccination roll-out plan.

“I sent a letter to the governor’s office, as the Emergency Medical Services director for the Upper Blackfoot Valley and urged them to reconsider,” he said, adding he’s been in close contact with Emergency Preparedness Coordinator Brett Lloyd, who Birkholz said is also fighting to get the teachers vaccinated soon.