Superintendent holds town hall to discuss South Bend schools reopening plan

 

SOUTH BEND, Ind.—Superintendent Dr. Todd Cummings on Thursday held a virtual town hall to address how the South Bend Community School Corporation plans to reopen amid COVID-19 concerns.

On Monday, school officials will present their initial reopening plan to the board.

“Our top priority is to ensure that our students and our staff people are safe. I know listening to the news, it’s very scary. I know that there’s a lot of misinformation but we have to do the best we can do and right now the best we can do are our local medical experts who follow the CDC guidelines, who follow all the best research. These are the folks that we trust to help us reopen school,” Cummings said.

Cummings told community members that officials are still working on solving the issue of social distancing on schools buses, making sure that face masks and hand sanitizer is available and securing personal protective equipment for bus drivers, like gloves and face shields.

“With the department of Health, we’re going to do our best to keep students apart but as they wear masks we won’t have to have six feet of separation,” Cummings said.

Teachers will also be equipped with gloves and face shields.

Cummings said there are no current plans for a full e-learning plan unless the district shuts down again.

“Parents are going to have to make sure that if your student is sick or staff people, if you’re sick, you have to stay home,” Cummings said.

Students will be given the option of either a full return to school or the option of virtual learning, Cummings said.

If at any point a student needs to be quarantined, they will then move to the virtual option and once their quarantine ends, they will be allowed to return to school in-person.