Final Update of 2020

Dear Quinter School Family: I want to share what I hope is our last update of 2020. I realize that August seems like a lifetime ago, but I would like to briefly take you back to that time when none of us were sure about where each day would take us. Here are the goals that I shared with you on August 14th. Every student and staff member functions within a school in which the environment is as safe as possible.  Every student and staff person feels safe when functioning within the school environment.  The school opens to in-person instruction and remains open to in-person instruction for the course of the entire school year.  The school provides all available extracurricular activities to students for the course of the entire school year. As we arrive at the halfway point towards achieving those goals, I would like to share some numbers with you. 109-The number of students who have been in quarantine. 926-The number of days students have been out of school due to quarantines. 18- The number of staff who have been in quarantine. 249- The number of days staff have been out of school due to quarantines 4- The number of classrooms placed into a modified quarantine December 14th-The first day during the entire school year that not a single student or staff was in quarantine.  0- The number of school days lost due to COVID-19 In August we had decided to not have a school play for this year because we were concerned about how to do attendance. We also had to modify some FFA activities. That said, we have not cancelled a single scheduled junior high or high school, football, volleyball, cross country, basketball, or music activity so far this year. The state has cancelled numerous music programs and other activities and we lost 2 football games due to the other team cancelling. It is difficult to appreciate at the moment just how significant your accomplishment has been up to this point. I recognize that anything could happen in the spring semester, but what you have done to this point is extremely rare. There are very few schools in the country let alone Kansas that can say they have done what you have done. Over 40 percent of the students in Kansas have been in remote learning for the majority of this year, with many more in remote or hybrid learning off and on through out the semester. Nationwide that number is even higher. That final number is zero because you, the parents, the teachers, the substitute teachers, the staff, the custodians, the bus drivers, the secretaries, and the students decided it would be so. That number is zero because the board of education decided it would be so. That number is zero because our County Health Department and our local health providers decided it would be so. That number is zero because every time a staff person had to be out, another staff or in many cases, a student, stepped up and took their place. That number is zero because your teachers kept on teaching students wherever they happened to be. That number is zero because this community decided to that the safest place for students physically, emotionally and mentally, is in school. I look forward to seeing all of you in 2021.  Thanks Kurt

Thursday, Dec 17 2020

Late Start

Dear Parents: This is a reminder that tomorrow, Friday, December 11th is a scheduled late start day. Bus routes will run and school will begin two hours late. Thanks Kurt

Friday, Dec 11 2020

Winter Concert Time Change

Dear Quinter School Family: We have moved the start time to broadcast the winter concerts back 1 hour. The broadcast of the K-6 concerts will begin at 6:30 pm and the live broadcast of the 7-12 concerts will begin at 8:00 pm (still on Tuesday, December 15th). We have made this change in order to allow parents time to get home from work and still view the broadcasts. It will also be completely dark at 6:30 pm to enhance the view of our drive-in theater broadcast of the concerts. Thanks Kurt

Wednesday, Dec 09 2020

Update/Fan Attendance

Dear Quinter School Family: Today the Kansas State High School Activities Association met and changed its previous decision concerning having no fans at school extracurricular activities including basketball. They have decided that schools may choose to allow up to two parents/legal guardians to attend these events beginning on December 10th as allowed by the local board of education and county health department. As per the KSHAA ruling no fans are allowed between today and December 10th.  The USD-293 Board of Education in consultation with the Gove County Health Department has determined to extend the zero fan rule through December 15th. That means for events that occur at Quinter Schools no fans will be allowed during that time frame. This decision applies to the Castle Rock Classic basketball tournament and the junior high basketball game on Monday, December 14th as well as the winter concerts on December 15th. There are several reasons to extend the rule for an additional 5 days. 1. Today marks the 10th day after the end of the Thanksgiving holiday. COVID-19 has a 14 day incubation period and so we still do not know what effect it will have on local rates. 2. This school is an integral part of this community and our hospital, our doctors, our nurses, and other health care workers are asking for our help. 3. The Castle Rock Classic basketball tournament involves 5 teams not just two, thus potentially increasing the risk of exposure to our student athletes if fans were allowed to attend. We end the semester with a the junior high boys league tournament, a high school junior varsity tournament, and a high school league game. Remember our goals; We want our students to have the opportunity to participate in every event possible. We do not want to increase the risk of exposure this weekend and put our ability to participate in those semester ending events at risk. 4. The Gove County Health Department, the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, The KSHAA Health Advisory Committee, The KSDE gating criteria as established by input from the KU med center, all strongly recommend having zero fans/audience members during this time period. The junior high league tournament, the high school junior varsity tournament, and the high school league game all take place at other schools. We will notify you as soon as we receive word from these schools as to their policy concerning fan attendance at these events. Please remember that they, like us, can implement a stricter policy but cannot allow more the two parents/legal guardians as determined by KSHAA. They may decide that is safe to do so since it is the end of the semester and the risk of having to cancel games due to exposure is minimized. We will see. I recognize that every action taken, every word written or spoken by the school concerning COVID-19 triggers strong emotions. This update is no different. We watch the deliberations of these entities and our heat rate immediately goes up. Our brain begins pushing us towards what is termed "fight or flight" We desperately want to run away or to lash out. We seek out someone or something to blame for making us feel this way. We feel caught and trapped. We have been taking deep breaths for 10 months now and exhaustion set in long ago.  So I will finish with this. We are so very proud of your children and grandchildren. They are practicing diligently for music concerts, basketball games and scholars bowl tournaments. They come to school every day and pay attention and work hard and help out. They have been integral in keeping our doors open, and because of them, I continue to have the best job in town. Thanks Kurt

Tuesday, Dec 08 2020

Winter Concert Change!

Dear Quinter School Family: There is this saying: "Whatever doesn't kill you will make you stronger." After this year I have a different saying: "Whatever doesn't kill you will still make you cry like a baby." We have asked a great deal from you and your children this year and I am going to do it one more time before 2020 runs out. We are moving the date and the time of the K-3 concert and changing the time of the 4-6  and 7-12 concerts.  The school simply is not fully prepared to conduct the K-3 concert scheduled for December 7th. This is due to the preparations we need to make because there will be no audience. Ok, so full disclosure.  The students are ready, the teachers are ready, but unfortunately, I am not ready. All of the materials necessary to set up our drive-in theater have not arrived. We have received feedback from elementary parents as to the hardship an evening concert (that they cannot attend) will cause.  Without parents at the elementary concert, school staff will have to take care of pretty much everything from combing hair to giving students (the stare) when students are making bunny ears behind their neighbor.  I feel that to move forward with the concerts on Monday, December 7th would be a mistake. So, after consultation with many learned individuals, who had many excellent ideas, here is the plan.  The K-3 concert is being moved to December 15th. The K-3 and 4-6 concerts will be conducted during the school day. This will allow all of our school staff to be there to assist and will relieve parents of the burden of having to get their children to the school in the evening. This move will also allow us to fully prepare the drive-in. The K-3 and 4-6 concerts will be broadcast one time beginning at 5:30 pm over the school Youtube channel and at the drive-in theater, and will be followed by the live broadcast of the 7-12 concert at 7:00 pm . On the 15th elementary parents can either send their child/ren to school in their concert clothes or send the clothes to school for their child to change into. We will have school personnel take pictures of all of the students before and during the concerts and we will make these pictures available to parents afterwards. Parents can then watch the concert with their child at home that evening or if there is no internet available or just for fun, parents and community members can come watch all of the concerts at our drive-in theater at the high school beginning at 5:30 pm. It is our fervent hope that this change will help to alleviate stress on parents and school personnel.  I know that the constant changes are difficult to deal with and there always seems to be one more thing on your plate. I apologize for the late notice, but we are hopeful that the additional time and the change to during the school day will allow all of our students to participate to the fullest extent possible, while also providing an opportunity for our elementary parents and students to enjoy watching the concerts together. Thanks Kurt

Friday, Dec 04 2020

Winter Concerts

Dear Quinter School Family: Last night the Board of Education made the decision to apply the KSHAA rule of no audience to the school winter concerts. This decision, like all others this year, was difficult to make and only came after much discussion and an exploration of alternatives. The decision was made based upon feedback from our school site council and local health officials. Only a major pandemic could lead to this decision. The school relies on parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles, etc. to assist it in the education of students. One of the primary reasons students in Quinter are so well adjusted is the large number of adults who actively participate in their lives. While the school understands and appreciates the need to keep the community safe and to exercise diligence in reducing the burden COVID has placed upon our community, the board is also committed to mitigating the potential negative impacts this decision might have. Here is the plan for the winter concerts. 1. The K-3 grade concert will be Monday, December 7th at 7:00 pm at the high school. The 4-6 grade concert will be Tuesday, December 15th at 6:30 pm at the high school. The 7-12 concert will be Tuesday, December 15th at 8:00 pm at the high school. 2. The concert will be broadcast on the school Youtube channel. We are also in the process of creating a drive-in movie theater in the high school parking lot that will also broadcast the concert live. We will have a large screen on the west side of the gymnasium facing the parking lot that will show the concert. The sound will come through your car radio. We are creating the drive-in for two reasons. First, the school understands and appreciates that some families do not have access to the internet or to a device necessary to watch the concert online. Second, since the concerts are in the evening, it would create an undo hardship for parents to drive their child in to the school and then either drive home or have to find a place in town to watch the concert before picking them up again. This way, parents can drop their child off and then remain in their car and watch the concert. Once the drive-in is in place we will be able to utilize it to broadcast other school activities through out the year.  3. The district will offer to provide transportation to and from the concert for students who live on a bus route. The district is offering this service for parents who do not have the ability to transport their students to town and then wait until the concert is over. I will be sending a survey out to these parents to determine the level of need for this service. I don't believe I am alone when I say that I absolutely love our music concerts. They are always outstanding and clearly make a positive impact upon our students. Since this pandemic began last March the students have missed the opportunity to participate in the regional and state music contests. The spring music concerts were cancelled. Summer band camps that several of our students attend were cancelled. This fall the KMEA festivals were cancelled. These winter concerts are necessary and important for the students to have. We must get music up and running again and so yes the shows will go on. It is now up to us adults to figure new and creative ways to support these students in this endeavor. Thanks Kurt

Tuesday, Dec 01 2020

Update

Dear Quinter School Family: Events are occurring that I feel the need to share with you. The sharing of information during this pandemic has become this delicate dance of making sure we fulfill our commitment of remaining fully transparent and keeping you informed and yet not immediately increasing your level of anxiety with the information we provide. This is especially challenging when we need to share news that still contains a great deal of unknown. As is the case now. This week the following events occurred. Governor Kelly issued Executive Order 20-68 requiring masks. This order by itself does not effect the school as we require all students, staff and visitors to wear masks inside our buildings. Her order is a bit unique in that it requires counties to take some sort of action or else the order automatically takes effect. Gove County now must decide if it is going to accept the decision, opt out of the decision or create its own order. The actions the county chooses to take might have an impact upon the school. Next Tuesday at 1:00 pm the Kansas State High School Activities Association will vote to decide if winter sports are to proceed as scheduled or if the start of winter sports will be delayed until January 15th. They will also vote on whether to shortened the seasons and decide if no fans are to be allowed to attend activities through the month of January. The hospitals across the midwestern part of the United States are full. They are full in large part due to the sheer volume of patients who require hospitalization due to COVID-19. This means that the Gove County Medical Center has no place to take patients with significant health care needs or whose needs require specialization. This is putting local patients in a position of significant risk and is placing an overwhelming burden on the hospital and its staff. The only way for this situation to improve is for the number of hospitalizations due to COVID-19 to go down. This also, does not directly impact the school but decisions the school makes may have the potential to impact it. Also, next Tuesday evening our site council/health provider work group will meet to review the decisions of the county commissioners and KSHAA. The group will also review local, statewide and regional COVID numbers and discuss how school decisions may impact those numbers. Finally, the group will then re-examine the USD-293 pandemic response plan to determine if any changes should be suggested to the Board of Education. Our county commissioners, health department workers, hospital administrators and KSHAA representatives have been given a terrible burden. It is a burden that I can assure you, none of them want nor do they deserve. They must make their decisions and hope that history smiles favorably upon them. Once these entities have made their decisions then it falls to our USD-293 Board of Education to decide how they impact the school. The reason I remind us so frequently of the primary goals of the school is to assist us in remaining steadfast to our purpose as a school. We do believe that the safest place for your children at this time continues to be in school. We do believe that our extracurricular activities are essential to maintain the mental and emotional health of our students and that they should continue as long as it safe for them to do so. In order to maintain these goals, to continue with school and its activities in the face of this pandemic, further actions by the school may be required. It may become necessary to further reduce the number of attendees at concerts and basketball games. It may become necessary to further restrict visitors to the schools. It may become necessary to have students regularly help us fulfill the daily functions of the school. The well being of the students began this journey and that is also how it will end. There will come a point sometime in the future when our students reflect upon their role in all of this. In watching their actions on a daily basis, I am confident that they will be able to say; "I did my part." Thanks Kurt

Saturday, Nov 21 2020

Update

Dear Quinter School Family: I am so very grateful that you send us the best kids on the planet, because I am now purchasing chocolate in bulk. I have so much that I will even occasionally share it with staff. I honestly don't know what we would do if this school didn't have such good students. This past week at the elementary school we had four teachers absent due to COVID related quarantines and another two absent just because they were sick. (They didn't tell us what they were sick of. Yes, it is possible that it was me) Our goal from the beginning of this was to attempt to stay ahead of the curve, to work diligently to anticipate what is coming next and prepare for it. We do this in order to continue to meet our goals of in person instruction and having all extracurricular activities. Yes, predicting the future is nearly impossible given the ever changing conditions around us, but we continue to try. We ask a lot of questions every day but at the moment we continue to come up with some of the same answers. Here they are as of today. COVID Rates/School Mitigation COVID cases both statewide and nationally continue to increase. Here at school it fluctuates. About the time I am ready to send an update saying zero new cases in the school for the week, we get a new case. We don't have many but it is consistent. We still believe that school is the safest place for the students day in and day out. We will continue with all current mitigation procedures until our next review in December. I do not anticipate changing the school calendar at this point. The Thanksgiving break will occur as scheduled (Again, as of today). We will continue to examine options around the calendar as we move towards winter break but our goal will be to follow it as scheduled as well. At the moment, there does not appear to be any clear advantage gained for us locally to change it. We also believe that extracurricular activities are relatively safe when only the athletes are involved. We are going to attempt basketball and concerts with limited fans in order to improve the odds for participant safety. We have changed the winter concerts slightly. We have split the concerts by grades a bit differently and they will be held in the high school gymnasium. We will have a K-3 concert on December 7th at 7:00 pm as scheduled. The 4th grade will join the 5th and 6th grade and they will have their own concert on December 15th beginning at 6:30 pm. The 7th -12 grades will have their concert beginning at 8:00 pm also on December 15th. Broadcast of Basketball/Concerts We understand and appreciate how many grandparents, aunts, uncles, etc. normally attend our basketball games and concerts. The limitations on fan attendance will definitely create a hardship. Well, we have some exciting news that we hope will help to ease some of the pain. Mr. Countryman, with the assistance of the Board of Education, has pursued and arranged an agreement with the Fort Hays State University media department to broadcast our high school varsity home basketball games and winter concerts.  These will be broadcast on our school Youtube channel. The filming will involve three cameras instead of one. There will be one camera on the deck and two on the floor. The floor cameras will get close ups and actions shots and the scoreboard will be viewable at all times. We even have the possibility of a play by play announcer. Obviously there is much work to be done in order to make this project a complete success. First, we have to convince the coaches to get new and updated wardrobes so that they look good during pre-game and post-game interviews (probably need a makeup artist, actually, maybe several for our coaches). Then, we have to convince our insurance company that, Yes, it is a good idea to have our bulldog mascot do a flip while dunking a basketball off of a mini trampoline. Finally, we will have to make sure that whoever shoots the half court shot for $10,000 dollars is a terrible shot! On the serious side. The board of education is committed to this project but it will cost money that we did not originally budget for. Please contact Mr. Countryman at the high school if you or your business would like to help sponsor the broadcasts. Sponsors will be recognized throughout the broadcast. Businesses can provide us with graphics and logos to assist in building those recognitions. We are very excited about this partnership with FHSU and are hopeful that this becomes a permanent part of Quinter activities. Communication We are adding to new components to how we regularly communicate information with you and the public. Since information about tickets to basketball games, etc. effect other individuals besides just parents, we now posting all Quinter Public School parentsquare posts to our website. This can be found by clicking on the "Parent Square" tab right next to our twitter feed. We are also in the process of creating a school Facebook account where we will post all announcements. We are hopeful that we will be able to broadcast the basketball games and concerts using Facebook live and our Youtube channel simultaneously, thus giving audiences another viewing option. Thank you for all that you do to support our students.  Thanks Kurt

Monday, Nov 16 2020