Mask use eased a little at school

    In her report at last week’s CCS board of education meeting, K-6 Principal Becky Odens said one of the most exciting updates she was giving involved mask-wearing.
    There are no masks required on the playground anymore for K-6, she told board members.
    “That’s my most exciting news on the elementary K-6 side,” she said. “Teachers and students were very excited.”
    Supt. Adam Lambert also told board members at the Jan. 12 meeting the school continues to be cautious as it looks to loosen restrictions related to COVID-19.
    But, he emphasized, they are taking “baby steps,” and keep monitoring what’s happening.
    “We’re not going to do anything crazy here, like masks off everybody, especially for our 7-12 kids,” he said.
    He said the goal is to keep students in school and not jeopardize the extracurriculars  either, with conference and district events approaching.
    “We don’t want to have another outbreak and not be able to participate,” he said.
    “As we slowly do this just be patient. We’ll try outdoors right now,” he said.    
    Lambert said this week they’ll continue to watch progress with the vaccine, too, and he continues to sit in on the every-other-week updates online with Nebraska Dept. of Education officials and the governor.
District music
    CCS is one of the hosts for district high school music contests in April, and is set to have the District V Contest at the school on Friday, April 23.
    Schools from classes A, B, C and D from the western part of Nebraska would attend the local contest. CCS is in Class C.
    “We’re trying to figure out what that will look like,” Supt. Lambert said about the contest.
    The NSAA coordinates the contests across the state in different districts and classes. Lambert said, in light of the COVID situation, surveys were sent out recently to the hosting schools.
    Different options were suggested, he said, including having it as normal, small ensembles only, solos only or not at all.
    “One they were missing and one we suggested was having just large ensembles,” he said.
    He said that would allow kids to come in, perform and leave, without all the “intermixing throughout the building during the day.”
    By large groups, he meant the full choirs, concert bands, show choirs and jazz bands.
    He felt that could be better controlled.
    He will update the board as more information is learned.
Other business
    Supt. Lambert said they had a good experience Jan. 14 with a virtual job fair hosted by the University of Nebraska-Kearney.
    The format allowed for two half-hour presentations by CCS, which were given by Lambert, Odens and 7-12 Principal Mike Sorensen. Seventeen students signed up to sit in on those.
    Then, UNK education majors signed up for 10-minute slots for one-on-one meetings with CCS administration. Ten to 12 students signed up for the one-on-ones, Lambert said.
    It was a good way to spark some interest in Chase County Schools, he said.
    Principal Sorensen also reported on a Dec. 23 mock shooting drill held at the school with local law enforcement.
    It allowed the officers from the police department and sheriff’s office to review the school’s layout, number of doors and hiding places of concern.
    Sorensen added that he played the “shooter.”