12 minute read
ZCS navigates reopening during the pandemic
Zionsville Community High School students leave school after their first day of in-person classes Aug. 11. (Photo by Jarred Meeks)
BACK TO SCHOOL
ZCS navigates reopening during the pandemic
By Jarred Meeks jarred@youarecurrent.com
Zionsville Community Schools started its school year Aug. 10, beginning an unprecedented experiment to continue in-person classes amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.
On the same day, ZCS Supt. Scott Robison confirmed a person connected to Zionsville Middle School tested positive for COVID-19, the same day the school district started its academic year.
The situation led school officials to keep all eighth-graders from in-person attendance at ZMS until the week of August 24.
Although schools in the district started their fall semester Aug. 10, ZMS students did not attend in-person classes until Aug. 11. Along with other ZCS secondary schools, ZMS offered remote learning the first day of the semester due to the school district’s hybrid schedule, which calls for all secondary schools to conduct remote learning classes on Mondays. Elementary schools in the district returned to in-person classes Aug. 10. After contact with the Boone County Health Dept., which set the duration of quarantine for all involved in the case, ZCS officials announced eighth-grade students would, while learning remotely, follow the same daily schedule and be taught by the faculty members to whom they were assigned this semester. Robison said in an email that ZCS would refrain from sharing any information that could identify the person who tested positive, including their age and role at the school. He said the school district will not release identifying information of any person related to the schools who tests positive for COVID-19.
Other schools across the state have reported COVID-19 cases, many of which did so in the first week of reopening to in-person classes, including schools in Fishers, Noblesville and Westfield.
BCHD Public Health Educator Claire Haughton said schools should expect some cases of COVID-19 through the year.
“The overall goal (early in the pandemic) was not necessarily to stop the spread of COVID-19 in Boone County because we knew that would be impossible,” Haughton said. “Our goal was to prevent the hospitals from being overwhelmed. That was the overarching goal: try to save lives and do everything we can to make sure our hospitals aren’t getting in over their heads with serious cases or deaths.
“It is a highly infectious disease, and we know young people are more likely to not have symptoms, so they are more likely to go around undetected, so I don’t think there would be any way we could keep our schools completely COVID-free. But we are going to do our best. Schools are going to work really, really hard to stop the spread of the disease in the schools.”
BCHD officials confirmed students who attend county schools have tested positive for COVID-19 during the summer.
The health department does not keep age-related cumulative data at the county level, so it is unclear how many tested positive. Haughton said extra curricular activities such as contact sports are believed to have been the source of some cases.
ZCS’s school year had already been delayed from Aug. 4, the school district’s original first planned day of the semester. Other Boone County schools, including Western Boone County Community School Corp. schools and Lebanon Community School Corp. schools returned to school later in the week.
On Aug. 11, when secondary schools returned to class, students walked through halls with masks, which were required in all schools by the school district. Students wore them through the day, outside buildings and on to their respective buses without removing them at the end of the day — one of the many changes students adjusted to.
Some students at secondary schools were sequestered into groups to further decrease the chance of a large COVID-19 outbreak at one of the schools (some students chose a remote learning option, meaning they won’t be returning to in-person classes for the semester). Students attending in-person classes were grouped together by last name — students with last names beginning with A through K in one group, students with last names beginning with L through Z in another. On Tuesdays and Wednesdays, only students in the former group attend classes, and on Thursdays and Fridays only students in the latter group attend classes, each attending four of their eight block classes each day.
On Mondays, while remote learning, students will complete all eight of their block classes. All in-person elementary students will attend in-person every school day. All remote elementary students will attend remotely each day with their designated, ZCS instructor at the lead.
LITTLE HUMANS
Each year Zionsville Community Schools Supt. Scott Robison reads a children’s book to kindergarteners. This year, he read “Little Humans” by Brandon Staton.
“This time we’ve been through can make us all feel small,” Robison said in a ZCS video released Aug. 9, the day before the school district’s semester began. “I just wanted to say we are all coming back in a time that is very uncommon, and that’s OK. In fact, we get stronger when we find our way through things and when we are solution-minded together.
“There are times in life when we just feel like a little human,” Robison said to the children of ZCS. “We do really big things when we do just the small act of social distancing and wearing our masks.”
Robison concluded the video by saying, “It’s going to be a great school year in the Zionsville Community Schools.”
ESSAY In harm’s way Commentary by Terry Anker
Alongside one another on a city street, probably administratively correct but just barely wide enough for bulking emergency vehicles, two motorists — an empty ambulance and a sedan — were aligned next to each other. The ambulance driver was likely bored from his daily task of ferrying northside patients to downtown hospitals for testing and treatment; and the other was returning home enjoying the evening sun. As the two vehicles were first as the traffic light descended from red to green, they both advanced, side by side.
Twenty feet from the crosswalk, the ambulance driver, eagerly finishing the important text message that had affixed his cellphone to the center of the steering wheel and his gaze to it, allowed the now unrestrained and lumbering giant to nudge itself into the lane to its right — claiming real estate until others had no choice but to take the ditch as refuge. Alerted by the crunching steel precipitated by his absent-mindedness, the phone was dropped and the wheel reclaimed as the now-tamed colossus sped off in shame. The beleaguered and disabled passenger automobile took stock that all occupants were safe and accounted for, and then the fright of the moment shifted from abject fear to understandable frustration.
Happily, there was only mechanical and not physical damage. And, thanks to traffic cams and a report from police that “this happens all the time,” the health care company took responsibility for the repair (but not for the hours of inconvenience it precipitated). Do we flee from the damage of our own lack of attention, assuming the harm we inflict on others as inconsequential and not intentional? Do we measure our minor effort against their significant harm? Is it our nature to count those we injure as egregiously as we measure those hurting us? Do we wonder who are we running off the road?
Terry Anker is an associate editor of Current Publishing, LLC. You may email him at terry@ youarecurrent.com.
An (almost) empty nest
Commentary by Danielle Wilson
In a few short days, my husband Doo and I will be relishing the return to our almost empty nest. Praise be! We’ll HUMOR still have our youngest around to keep us young, but the eldest three will be heading back to their respective college campuses, COVID-19 be damned.
And it’s been a fascinating run-up to said departures, given the different personalities of our kids. The oldest has been fairly nonchalant. He has already made one trip to Bloomington to move out of one shoddy apartment and into a slightly better house, though that just means all of his beerstained stuff is now piled in a basement. He plans to show up a day or two before classes, plenty of time to organize, find a job and prep for the enviable grind of student life.
Our older daughter is at the complete opposite end of the coed spectrum. She’ll be driving to Colorado for her sophomore year and only has a Honda Accord’s worth of space with which to work. Our kitchen table has become a triage as she weighs the pros and cons of each small appliance, piece of clothing and pair of boots. What will make the cut? The intrigue is palpable.
Her twin is perhaps the saddest to observe. He’s transferring to Ball State from a California school because it’s going online this semester. He knows he’s been accepted, and that’s about it. He has no move-in date, no dorm assignment, no desire whatsoever to visit Muncie. His lack of enthusiasm is outweighed only slightly by his disdain for being in Indiana. Hashtag heartbroken.
Regardless, a near empty nest approaches!
Peace out.
Danielle Wilson is a contributing columnist. You may email her at info@youarecurrent.com.
LETTER Harmony between safety, faith Editor,
Every year, millions of Muslims around the world make a journey to the holy city of Mecca to perform the Hajj, which is obligatory once in a lifetime but only for those with means and if their circumstances permit. The Hajj is one of the five pillars on which Islam is built on. People at home celebrate Eid al-Adha, “the feast of sacrifice,” that commemorates the end of the Hajj.
Every year, around 2 million people attend the Hajj. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, officials of Hajj of Saudi Arabia made a critical decision to limit the number of pilgrims to around 1,000. It also issued guidelines for safe Eid al-Adha addressing social distancing at prayer and public gatherings.
These circumstances remind us about the story of how God commended prophet Ibrahim to sacrifice his son, Ismail, as a test of faith. This story has institutionalized the practice of sacrifice, patience and obedience in Islam and continues to be honored by 1.8 billion Muslims each year.
This upcoming Hajj pilgrimage and Eid al-Adha will be a testament to the harmony between safety and faith and will serve as proof that protecting one another is truly part of faith.
Elias Merzoug, Clay Middle School student and member of Boy Scout Troop 202
POLICIES
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More trips down memory lane
Commentary by Dick Wolfsie
When I announced my retirement from television last month, WISH-TV asked me to send them some tapes of my HUMOR favorite shows for my send-off. I had favorites in my head, I just didn’t have the tapes. Back in the ’80s and ’90s, I had to remember to set my VCR each morning, and quite frankly, I had never quite mastered that skill. But there is a tape running in my head, and unless I accidentally erase it, I still have some great memories. So, for the next two weeks’ columns, I’ll hit the replay button. Tall in the saddle
At Hoosier Park, I asked a jockey to stand on a chair and allow me to interview him as “Otto, the world’s tallest jockey.” The camera only revealed us above the waist. The jockey played it totally straight, even lamenting his poor basketball skills in high school. The photographer never revealed the chair because it was so obviously a gag. Turns out the horse’s owner was watching and had never met Otto — and had never seen me on TV. She didn’t know I did “shtick.” She called Hoosier Park in a panic, concerned that her horse would be carrying a 6-foot-3 rider. How good an actor was Otto? He ended up playing the jockey in the movie “Secretariat.” My best pun
In the early ’80s, I was hosting “Good Morning, New York.” I had the opportunity to interview boxing champion Sugar Ray Leonard. Because he was doing 7-Up commercials at the time, I asked him if he would mind autographing a 2-liter bottle I picked up on the way to the studio.
“But, Dick,” he said, “this is regular 7-Up. I just do the Diet 7-Up commercials.”
“OK, then, could you sign it “Sugar-Free Ray Leonard?” Sheet music
The Sybaris hotel is a place for lovers, complete with hot tubs and mirrors. When I interviewed the owner in one of the rooms, behind us in bed were friends I had asked to be part of the stunt. There was no hanky-panky going on, but they kept peeking out from under the covers. Well, the next day, scores of people told me that I had inadvertently gone into an occupied room. Seriously? Jaw-dropping observation
Almost 35 years ago, I did a segment in Columbus, Ohio, about couples who swing. This wasn’t dancing. These were married folks who switched partners. When I got home, my wife told me how impressed she was with the guests.
“You were impressed?” I asked, jaw dropping.
“Yes. We can’t even find a couple to go to the movies with.”
Dick Wolfsie is an author, columnist and speaker. Contact him at wolfsie@aol.com.
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