Driving School Elective approved for Willits Charter School
The Jan. 11 Charter School Association of Willits board meeting was held in person and broadcast over Zoom, with some technical difficulties making it challenging for the Zoom audience to hear much of what was discussed.
Willits Elementary Charter School (WECS) and Willits Charter School (WCS) provided updates on COVID protocols surrounding masking, quarantining and testing. WECS Director Charlene Bredder, PhD said WECS will push back allowing parents on site (which was set to occur this week) due to the Omicron surge. Bredder said, “We will revisit this again in February.”
Additionally, the school will continue to test students twice a week (with parental consent) and will require positive Covid cases to take a negative test before returning to campus. Students and staff alike are required to wear masks at all times while on campus. Bredder stated that 15 percent of the student population is vaccinated at WECS.
With the new variant, temperature is an indicator of infection so both charter schools have been checking students’ temperatures before they come on campus.
WCS Director Jennifer Lockwood reported that WCS has not had a huge increase in Covid cases, but has experienced a large increase in students on modified quarantine and modified independent study. She also stated the school saw in increase in Covid cases among basketball players, who are allowed to take their masks off while playing. Lockwood reported the girls’ basketball team had their first win of the year against Lucerne.
WCS has not had an outdoor masking requirement this year. Lockwood said, “We haven’t really had any problems with it, or seen an uptick (of cases). It’s been going pretty well all year, because we are doing all this testing. I think, if we weren’t doing the testing a couple times a week, I wouldn’t really feel comfortable with them not having masks outside. But so far it’s working so we are going to stick with it and it is nice for them to have that break.”
The board approved the addition of a Driving School Elective at WCS which includes behind-the-wheel instruction. The school will cover the cost for 11th- and 12th-grade students. Lockwood stated the cost is approximately $550 per student and the school is partnering with Sweet Driving School in Lake County. The school will bring cool cars for the students to drive. Lockwood said, “We thought that would be fun for the students and a great way to help them progress towards adulthood.” She explained a lot of students stop pursuing their driver’s license after the online driver’s education course due to the prohibitive cost of driving lessons.
The new building at WCS is expected to be completed this spring. Lockwood said, “It’s looking good and it gives the kids hope to see progress happening.”
The board discussed adding a transitional kindergarten and decided to look into the idea more thoroughly before making a decision at the next board meeting, Feb. 8.
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