September 25, 2020
Dear Panther Families,
I wanted to reach out and give you all a campus update. The last six weeks have run fairly smoothly and much to our delight, quite successfully! However, the cold and flu season is upon us. This year, the possibility of contracting COVID-19 has been added to our typical cold and flu season. Pioneer continues to work tirelessly to follow CDC guidelines and recommended protocols for cleaning and disinfecting all areas of campus to mitigate the risk of exposure for our students and staff.
As we begin to venture into cold and flu season, I felt it important to highlight that our staff is held to the same strict guidelines when determining when to stay home or be sent home. One or two symptoms as outlined by our district’s COVID-19 Guidelines will send and keep staff home for 10+ days. This new, but very important protocol and a lack of available substitute teachers can put a district in a difficult situation, very quickly. As you can imagine, we cannot run a school without staff!
The purpose of this update is two-fold. One is to prepare our Panther families for the possibility of the district having to move to remote learning (Plan C) for 1-2 weeks due to a lack of staffing available to be here on campus. We simply cannot safely, or successfully run a school without a certain number of adult bodies on campus. Our goal is to maintain the school in Plan A as much as physically possible this year, but the reality of this is that we will likely see Plan B or Plan C from time to time as we navigate this 2020-2021 school year. We will give our Panther families as much notice as possible to allow you to make plans for students to be home, remote learning for a short period of time.
Secondly, we are (as many schools are) in dire need of substitute teachers. If you are interested or know someone interested in substitute teaching, please reach out to Mrs. Michael or me to apply. A background check is required, and Pioneer School pays $100.00 per day to be a substitute teacher.
As always, we appreciate your support as we navigate these unprecedented challenges. Please feel free to contact me with any questions or concerns.
Be well, Panthers!
Sincerely,
Melissa Schnitzmeier
Principal/Superintendent, Pioneer Elementary
