Petersburg School Board will be holding a regular meeting Tuesday to discuss loosening the COVID mitigations at the schools.
Superintendent Erica Kludt-Painter will be recommending that the board consider optional masking after Spring Break. She’s asking the board to consider the latest available information on the pandemic. That includes updated guidance from the CDC–the Centers for Disease Control, the decreased COVID case counts and local hospitalization rates, and vaccination and past positive rates. All other COVID-related measures at the schools would stay the same including testing and notification of positive cases.
Here is the current policy approved by the board in February.
The school district would still be able to implement short-term masking if the medical center has high levels of new COVID patients or there is an outbreak large enough to consider remote learning. The decision to go that route would be made under guidance from the Health Advisory Team, which includes several school district employees as well as the public health nurse and a representative with the Petersburg Medical Center.
Also at the meeting, the school board will hear an update on the state’s assessment tests from the district’s testing coordinator, Bridget Wittstock. She’ll go over the MAP tests and the AK STAR summative test, which will be given to students for the first time this year in place of the PEAKS test. Beginning in 2023, students will take the MAP Growth test in the fall and winter and the AK STAR summative in spring.
The school board will also hear administrative reports from the superintendent, the principals, and the activities director, Jaime Cabral. Cabral will be explaining the new online ticketing system for the school district for home events, called HomeTown Ticketing.
The regular school board meeting will be in-person and virtual. It starts at 6 p.m. in the Petersburg High School library and via Ring Central video conferencing.
KFSK will be broadcasting the meeting live. To listen to it, you can stream it at KFSK.org or tune in on your radio. To participate in the meeting online, you will need to log in to RingCentral. Mail the district office before the meeting to get the password for the videoconference. Those email addresses are: exec@pcsd.us or supt@pcsd.us. Or call the office at (877)-526-7656.
Also, tune in to KFSK Tuesday at 12:30 p.m. for Campus Connection, a call-in with school district officials.
