By ROD ZOOK
Hutch Post
BUHLER, Kan. — Superintendents are looking over a lot of pages when it comes to the reopening guidelines for education in the state of Kansas. Superintendents were able to get a draft of the Navigating Change plan last week.
Buhler USD 313 Superintendent Cindy Couchman was part of the Oversight Committee of the panel put in charge of getting the plan, which is 1,100 pages long, in place.
“About 1,000 pages of that are instructional based, and so that deals with competencies,” Couchman said. “The state department, and educators, and content specialists really looked at our competencies across the state and across each curricular area and grade level area.”
Couchman says it's the final 100 pages or so of the proposal that will likely be of most interest to district patrons.
“About 100 pages are what we call operations. That includes everything from food service to transportation to cleaning protocols,” Couchman said. “Those operations, about 100 pages, is where a lot of people, that I would say, are most concerned about as we look at the safety of opening our buildings.”
No matter what the pandemic throws at them, Couchman says they are confident the school year will happen. How that will look is still a work in progress.
“Every week it changes, every day it changes, so we are making plans at every school . . . for remote learning and for in-person learning,” Couchman stressed. “And Buhler is looking at both of those and is coming up with plans for both options for students who need to stay at home for health reasons and for those students who need to be in our school building.”
Couchman says the district will get a rough draft of plans for the year Thursday and the school board could take action on those plans during a meeting July 27.