The school is running into issues regarding student transportation. Some staff members have had to be quarantined due to possible exposure to COVID-19. As a result, there has been a strain on the transportation department. In fact, students were almost told to stay home on Tuesday due to a lack of transportation. Becker Schools even went so far as to post a notice on Facebook advising parents that school might be cancelled. Fortunately, enough drivers were found in the end and students went to school as usual.

On the Facebook post, a few parents inquired about the possibility of cancelling just one or two routes, so the rest of the students could still attend school, and families could arrange for their own transportation on those days, but Supt. Jeremy Schmidt said no dice. Cancelling routes to school could end up entangling the school in a legal web. Students have to be provided with equitable transportation: the school cannot say, for example, students of one neighborhood must arrange their own transportation.

On the bright side, some community members have stepped up to become substitute drivers, just as some have become substitute teachers. Unfortunately, it takes time for the volunteers to obtain their CDL licenses, which is slowing progress down for the moment.

Election

A special board meeting was held on Friday to canvass the school board votes from the election. The date was changed to allow time for the collection of mail-in ballots.

Homecoming and Veterans’ Day

Becker had its homecoming week this week. There were dress-up days during the week, and the homecoming royalty spray-painted the Bulldogs’ logo on cars on campus (the paint washes off, and it was opt-in only.) The homecoming king and queen were crowned on Wednesday.

On Veterans’ Day, trucks decked out in patriotic gear lined the campus parking lot. Veterans’ Day programming by the school was available to view remotely.

COVID-19 Numbers

During open forum, one parent, Wes Scott, asked the board if they were releasing accurate numbers on the COVID-19 cases in the schools, and, if not, why? He said that the families in the district had a right to know how many cases were in the schools. He had previously contacted the school about this issue, and even went on to contact the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH), but couldn’t get a hold of the information, due to data privacy policies.

The board responded to Scott by saying that they had numbers for the county on the school website. They did not plan to publish the numbers by each school since the MDH advised them not to do so. They stated that if any school had more than five cases, families would be notified by letter. The board promised they were not trying to hide any information.

Academic Probation

The academic probation policy for sports has changed slightly. Now, students with an F in any class will not be put on academic probation at mid-trimester. This change was made because some teachers are having a difficult time catching up on grading papers. Now, only students with two or more failing grades will be put on probation. The policy for the end of the trimester will remain the same: any student with even a single failing grade will be put on academic probation.

Survey

A survey was sent out to all households in the district regarding future projects for the schools. As of the time of the board meeting, just under 1,500 responses had been received.

The board has already received communications regarding a couple of allegedly controversial topics on the survey. The board stated that the purpose of the survey was to determine interest from the community in future projects, and that the best way to show support or nonsupport of certain projects was to fill the survey out.

Fundraising

The board once again looked at the fundraising policy during a first reading of the new draft. Some changes include that the superintendent must approve all fundraisers himself, and must inform the board at least once annually about the state of the fundraisers. The board also discussed implementing a consequence for groups that did not receive approval for their fundraiser. They decided to let the activities committee review the policy and suggest a consequence.