Education could be going virtual soon, at least for those enrolled in the South Washington County School scheduled to debut this fall, pending future developments.

Meeting March 24, 2022 at the District Service Center in Cottage Grove, the South Washington County (ISD 833) School Board got down to business. Before the night was over it had covered many things. Board chair Sharon Van Leer introduced the online school item.

“8.3 Approval of South Washington County Online,” Van Leer announced towards the end of the March 24, 2022 school board meeting. With Van Leer turning things over in turn to assistant district superintendent Kristine Schaefer, a basic summary of the matter then before the board was made known.

“Good evening again, school board chair Van Leer, school board members and superintendent Nielsen,” Schaefer opened her short remarks. “I am here tonight to seek approval for the continued planning and opening of our new online school SoWashCo Online. At our last school board meeting, superintendent Nielsen gave you an update on SoWashCo Online sharing some details. Our goal is to begin online classes in the fall of 2022 for our high school students.” With the district part of a cohort working with the Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) on the online school initiative, board approval was needed to move forward. Saying that 1,269 high school students across the district were enrolled in at least one online class for the fall, eight full-time students and 4,467 requested courses being taken online, the planned online school will also be open to students from outside the school district. With plans to advertise via postcards in Hastings, Woodbury, St. Paul, North St. Paul, and Minneapolis for the school, things were looking up for the planned online school. With a motion by Pat Driscoll seconded by Eric Tessmer, approval was given by the board for moving forward with the online school plans for this coming fall. That wasn’t all the board covered on March 24, however.

Also contained on the night’s agenda and approved in due turn were routine policy review updates, those for March being tied to 504 Student Dress and Appearance (Minor change), 507 Corporal Punishment (updated as per recommendations from the Minnesota School Board Association (MSBA), and 529 Staff Notification of Violent Behavior by Students (Removed Procedures and one grammatical change).

Policies touching on Student Acceleration Retention and Program Design, Student Recruiting, DNT-DNI Orders, and Use of Peace Offi­cers and Crisis Team stopped Remove Students with IEP’s from School Grounds, received no recommendation of changes. So what about those that did? The details are in the meeting packet.

Regarding 504 Student Dress and Appearance, the new policy strikes “business environment” from language involving acceptable student dress.

For Corporal Punishment, meanwhile, the note was made that provisions of the policy reflected statutory requirements, being cross referenced with MSBA/MASAS model policies 414 and 415, related to mandated reporting of child neglect or physical or sexual abuse, along with mandated reporting of maltreatment of vulnerable adults.

Regarding the final policy revision for Staff Notification of Violent Behavior by Students, the only substantive change was a change from the imperative “shall” to future tense “will,” with motion provided by Driscoll and seconded by Katie Schwartz to approve the policy change, a unanimous vote then following.

Aside from routine approval of consent agenda items related to retirements, resignations, terminations, leaves of absence, new employees and change of status, board minutes and financial matters, little else was covered at the March 24 school board meeting— but that’s all a story, for next week.