Dr. Chad Muhlenkamp, Director of Pupil Personnel and Health Officer at Glasgow Independent Schools, speaks to the Glasgow Board of Education on Monday, Feb. 8, 2021 at South Green Elementary School. Muhlenkamp described the school system’s excitement to have students back in classrooms as school instruction restrictions are virtually lifted.
(BRENNAN CRAIN/WCLU NEWS)
GLASGOW, Ky. — Most students are back in classrooms at Glasgow Independent Schools.
The final portion of the school system’s phased return included high school students. Those students retuned Monday.
It’s the first time in nearly a year that all students are in classrooms together. The school system moved to remote learning last spring due to the coronavirus.
Dr. Chad Muhlenkamp, Glasgow Independent Schools’ health officer and director of pupil personnel, said the phased return has included some changes to classrooms.
“We’ve had to reshuffle some classrooms around to be able to continue to offer the social distancing guidelines in most of our classrooms and allow that safe learning environment,” Muhlenkamp said. “Yet our students are in the building and going to be there five days a week to have that in-person instruction.”
Some students continue to use the distanced learning format, Muhlenkamp said.
The school system also said students will take required assessments this year. The U.S. Department of Education alerted the school system late last month about the testing.
“I think it was a shock for most people because we were expecting it to be just like last year,” said Supervisor of Instruction Tara Martin, “as we didn’t have testing in the spring due to covid closures.”
The ACT test is set for March 23 at Glasgow High School. KPREP, which is Kentucky’s state assessment, begins May 3 and will finish May 21.
In other news, the calendar committee received 563 responses to their request for comment regarding next year’s school calendar. The committee hadn’t returned a recommendation to the school board Monday.
The school system also approved request for letters of interest and proposal for construction management service for the South Green Elementary construction project. They plan to construct a new school, and shift the current SGE building to house the Glasgow Preschool Academy.
The school system heard an extensive presentation from architects at its Feb. 8 meeting about the school. They moved to approve a BG-1 plan. The new school’s plans are under review by the Kentucky Department of Education.
The school board meets again April 19 at Highland Elementary.
