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MORRISTOWN — The challenges of conducting education remotely featured in Thursday's meeting of the Union Local School District Board of Education.
The board started the meeting with a moment of silence in honor or former Belmont mayor Stan Sobel, who died Tuesday. Sobel had been a past board member and had been a longtime science teacher at Union Local High School.
Once the meeting was underway, Superintendent Ben Porter said students and staff continue to cope with the remote learning during the surge of COVID-19 cases.
"It's not perfect, but we have gotten a lot better than where we were in springtime with remote education," he said, adding Union Local, like other school districts, prepared during summer for the current school year with the expectation that cases would increase during winter.
He said the middle school is able to provide 30 minutes of live online instruction daily.
"I've got mixed feedback from people," Porter said. "I have received a lot of compliments on what the middle school has done. At the same time it's been a challenge for parents, especially working parents, who are trying to manage the school work along with having to work. ... It's not been easy, it's not been perfect, but I do feel we've done the best we can at this point in time."
"Nothing replaces in-person instruction," Porter said. "(Remote education) works really good for some students, and some students struggle at it. ... The sooner we can get kids back to the classroom, the better off it's going to be."
Porter said he hopes to be able to eventually vaccinate staff members.
Board member Dan Lucas said he has heard concerns from a parent of an elementary school child, saying there seems to be a lack of attention and interaction from elementary teachers.
"I'm going to defend the elementary teachers because those teachers put in a tremendous amount of time to make things work," Porter said. "It probably is a little more challenging with the younger kids being remote."
"We respect the input we get from people. I want to recognize all our staff for flowing with the times. If you ask our staff, they want kids back in school," Porter said. "Remote learning's not ideal, but at the same time I do feel like we're doing all we can do to make it the best it can be."
Porter also said while the county health department is following U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines and allowing quarantines to end in 10 days, the Ohio High School Athletic Association is recommending athletes be quarantined for 14 days if exposed to the virus.
Porter reported 15 internet hotspots will be received through T-Mobile. This will bring the total number of hotspots to 65. Treasurer Janet Hissrich said the cost of the first several months' service was covered by a broadband grant, with the district paying beginning in 2021.
Board members noted the hotspots are likely to continue to be of use in rural areas of the district.
The board also approved an agreement with Premier Wireless to provide service for ConnectED Bus WiFi Solutions at a cost of $28,034.10 and a T-Mobile estimated monthly data service at a yearly cost of $6,324. Hissrich said the $28,034.10 will be paid through a broadband grant.
"It's kind of state-of-the-art WiFi capabilities on our buses," Porter said. "Not only that, but it provides some technology support for routing."
Porter said camera feeds would be able to be livestreamed to the bus garage for added bus safety. Students will also have WiFi capability during bus rides.
Hissrich said buses could also be driven to rural areas to provide WiFi to sites for summer school and other needs. All 15 buses in the fleet will have the equipment.
The next meeting and organizational meeting will be held at 6 p.m. Jan. 14.