Virtual improvement

The verdict is in. The first extended virtual learning of 2020-21 proved to be an improvement over the experience from the close of the previous school year.

Director of e-learning Katie Clark provided those opinions from staff, parents and students during an update at Monday’s Jay School Board meeting.

Also Monday, the board approved a memorandum of understanding that included acknowledgment of the expiration of Tim Millspaugh’s contract as Jay County High School football coach at the close of the current school year. That contract will not be renewed. (See related story.)

Jay County Junior-Senior High School shifted to virtual learning for the week of Nov. 30 through Dec. 4 when Jay County was initially declared to be “red” (severe risk) for spread of coronavirus in Indiana State Department of Health’s county metrics. Clark noted that staff, parents and students were surveyed following that week. In that survey, 94% of staff, 81% of parents and 70% of students said their virtual learning experience was better than when in-person classes were shut down from mid-March through the end of the 2019-20 school year.

More than 60% of respondents rated the experience a 4 or 5 on a five-point scale with less than 10% rating it a 1.

“The staff really jumped on board,” said Clark. “The parents were pretty positive. The students … 70% said that it was better.

“We just feel really, really great about that.”

Clark noted that some of the challenges identified in the spring were communication issues and that the process was time-consuming and overwhelming. She said the corporation took steps to address those problems, including sharing effective strategies from within the Jay Schools staff and from other corporations. She added that the corporation has created 44 training modules to help with virtual learning since August.

“There are many, many ways for teachers to improve remote learning,” Clark said.

The vote on the coaching contract memorandum of understanding laid out when it would generally need to be updated for boys basketball, girls basketball and football. It noted that contracts for boys basketball coach Jerry Bomholt and girls basketball coach Kirk Comer run through June 2023 in addition to the football vacancy.

The memorandum was approved on a 6-1 vote with board president Phil Ford dissenting. Ford declined to give a specific reason for his vote other than that he disagreed.

Board members Krista Muhlenkamp, Ron Laux, Mike Shannon, Chris Snow, Donna Geesaman, Jason Phillips and Ford also approved a $295 per day pay rate for Shannon Current, who took over as interim business manager following the death last month of then-business manager Tarinna Morris. With Gulley noting that everyone in the corporation’s business office is in a new position, they also agreed to hire Violet Current at a rate of $24.63 per hour, not to exceed 20 hours, to help with year-end accounting.

In other business, the board:

•Approved the following: the district’s updated school safety plan; hiring Lisa Hogg as an instructional assistant at East Jay Elementary School; the retirement of East Jay custodian Ed Geesaman; transferring Suzy Glogas from part-time to full time as library instructional assistant at Westlawn Elementary School; a leave of absence for Bomholt as JCHS physical education teacher from Nov. 13 through the end of December; Ryan Wenk as junior high assistant wrestling coach.

•Accepted the Teacher Appreciation Grant ($112,409.24), which will provide stipends for teachers who were rated either a 3 or 4 for the 2019-20 school year, and Title IV Grant ($64.197.11).

•Heard from Shannon Current that the corporation’s education fund is projected to have a surplus of $1.09 million this year to bring its year-end cash balance to just under $3.7 million.

•Accepted the resignation of JCHS Spanish teacher Britt Schmiesing, effective Dec. 22.

•Heard from Gulley that meetings will be live-streamed to allow the public to observe while adhering to rules limiting the size of public gatherings during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. (The current limit is 25.) Links to the meetings will be provided at jayschoolcorp.org.