CCSD plans for future snow storms

Creston Community School District Superintendent Deron Stender shared with the board on Tuesday how the weather affected school the past week, as well as changes made for future inclement weather.

Creston schools have built 12 days into the school calendar for snow days, five of which have already been used. While the district could go online instead of cutting into the built-in days, Stender explained the goal was to avoid that.

“We haven’t done the online,” Stender said. “I think there’s probably not much to gain off of doing that, unless we have a very solid plan in place. Even when we had a solid plan in place, it was largely ineffective.”

Road blocks for going online include a lack of school-supplied devices and wifi hotspots, requiring guardians to support the online learning process and general difficulties with the online curriculum.

Stender also explained just because students have those 12 days built-in, that doesn’t necessarily apply to staff.

“At five days, that’s when we’ll start really looking at our options to do as a school district to recoup some of that time. Instructionally it’s lost time, but we also have contracted time that’s a part of that conversation as well,” Stender said. “On days when we may not have students in place, we may ask staff to still come in so we can do professional development that’s still got value.”

The past snow days were largely due to other area school districts.

“It’s not as easy as people think. It involves all our neighboring school districts, and it came down from anyone around us. The golden rule is, if you’re alone, don’t go. A lot of times, we get pinned down,” Stender said.

While surrounding school canceled classes on Tuesday, Stender said he was committed to getting students back in classrooms.

“Despite neighboring school districts that had to close... It was the information that we had available to us, knowing that the roads would be one way, that we were going two hours later and that the drivers communicated with the families,” Stender said. “We’re glad to have people back.”

Stender said getting students back on Tuesday was largely due to the district’s transportation department’s hard work.

“Each driver, the drivers called the families that were on their route to communicate that with them,” he said. “The two-hour late start for us was largely to give them time so when they got to the corner, they could check the road, make an assessment on the safe side.”

In order to get students back in school more quickly the next time there’s a storm, Stender is working with the county supervisor. The county now has a map of the bus routes, with the goal of having those roads cleared as early as possible.

In other school board news...

DLR Group met with the board to go over updates to the new Early Childhood Center plans after meeting with CCSD staff and parents. This design was approved by the board.

More space has been added to the administration office hallway to allow for more traffic. They are still working updating traffic flow at the school.

This meeting completed the schematic design phase of the ECC project. The design development phase will take the next eight weeks, including a variety of meetings with community, staff and businesses. DLR Group hopes to have the school ready for classes in fall 2025.

A public hearing was set for 6 p.m. Feb. 19 regarding the proposed 2024-25 school calendar.

The board approved a new protocol be added to the staff handbook, which requires employees to notify the district on occasions of arrest, criminal charges or child abuse complaints.

The school board approved the January 2023 list of of contracts and resignations.

Resignations: John Reasoner, high school social studies teacher and assistant FBLA advisor (end of 23-24 school year), Draven Pierce, para.

Contracts: Marty Wantland, custodian.