WATCH: WCS school board special called meeting to discuss additional staff for health and technology positions. @wherald https://livestream.com/accounts/5076979/events/9295504

The audio was pretty choppy with a lot of feedback. The livestream has officially stopped. @wherald

Jason Golden said, out of the 438 students in quarantine as of yesterday, 122 were from Brentwood High School. @wherald

Board member Brad Fiscus said the recording of the meeting will instead be uploaded online after the conclusion of the meeting. @wherald

The livestream is back up, and the meeting will still be posted afterwards. @wherald

Golden said that masks will still be required at schools even though the county mandate has expired. @wherald

Leigh Webb said that the WCS IT department said the district can increase its bandwidth to where 50% of teachers can be on Zoom at a time. @wherald

Today, the district had 76 substitute teacher requests and filled 33 of them. When subs can't fill in, other staff fills in, but Golden said there hits a point where there's no one left. "The raw numbers are not a crisis point, but the ratio concerns me." @wherald

Golden: "Our commitment is to serve every student." He said the district has really struggled to keep up with communication during the pandemic. @wherald

Golden said they're really working to make improvements to WCS Online. @wherald

Webb said WCS Online is using courses not built by WCS where, before this year, it was using almost all courses built by the district. After COVID, the district plans to revert to only its own courses. @wherald

Juli Oyer said elementary teachers are asking for professional development to continue to improve in things that are new. @wherald

She said real-time help, technology and subs are all areas for growth in WCS Online. @wherald

The biggest need for teachers: time. @wherald

Jennifer Aprea said many online elementary students are missing the social aspect of school and asked about fostering online social activities. Oyer said some teachers are conducting Zoom activities, but the district will continue to encourage relationship building. @wherald

Golden said more students have wanted to move to online than those who have wanted to switch from online to on-campus learning. Webb said 28 secondary students wanted to drop online and go on campus, and roughly 340 want to switch to online. @wherald

Golden said because of the teaching staff capacity, many of those requests have not been able to me met, but those wanting to go on campus from online have largely been able to make the switch. @wherald

Golden said, for those wanting to switch to online, he's heard that some have familial health concerns, some didn't expect schools to return to campus so quickly, and some have friends who are having a good experience online and want to switch. @wherald

Webb said secondary teachers are overwhelmed with all the things they're balancing. Most secondary teachers involved in WCS Online are split between online and on-campus classes. @wherald

Teachers reported a 65% comfort level with Edgenuity. @wherald

Many parents' concerns are the same as teacher concerns. Leigh Webb is sharing the different areas where teachers/families need more support. The themes: more time, quicker communication, technology support, resolving Edgenuity issues. @wherald

2 secretary positions for WCS Online are meant to help ease communication. @wherald

2 data processing personnel will help with tech issues, and 1 HR position will help recruit subs. @wherald