School district updates emergency plans in case of shutdown

Robert Perea, The Fernley Reporter

With the possibility that Governor Steve Sisolak could order severe COVID-19 restrictions next week, and with case numbers rising throughout the county, the Lyon County School District has updated its emergency plans in the case of a shutdown.

Superintendent Wayne Workman told the district’s Board of Trustees at its Nov. 18 meeting that district administration met with leadership of all of the schools in the district to update the emergency plans.

“We have people in community who are infected who happen to be employees or students,” Workman said. “Earlier today, we refined our emergency plans in case of the shutdown of a classroom, a school or, heaven forbid, the entire district.”

The COVID-19 data page on the District’s website was last updated Nov. 6, and at that time there were two staff members and four students with active cases. However, Workman told the Board that the district’s chief nurse and Human Resources department have been busy with contact tracing efforts because of new cases.

“Just this past weekend it blew up on them and they spent a lot of hours doing that,” he said.

Workman said one of the district’s concerns is that if too many staff members at one school were forced into quarantine, it could leave that school with not enough staff to continue in-person instruction.

In addition, Workman said there is concern that Sisolak could order school closures next week. Last week Sisolak issued a voluntary stay-at-home order, but warned that he could impose more drastic restrictions if case numbers, test positivity rates and hospitalization rates don’t improve during these two weeks.

If a class, school, or the entire district is mandated to transition to full distance learning, teachers are expected to continue to provide digital materials, such as Edgenuity, Google Classroom or Discovery Education, and to provide paper packets for students who don’t have access to the internet.

School officers would have at least one administrator and one secretary on site, and teachers would be allowed to be on campus.

Nutrition services and the transportation department would provide meals via bus routes for all children aged 18 and under in the county.