By Brandon Walker EBS COMMUNITY EDITOR
BIG SKY – At a special school
board meeting on the evening of March 15, the Big Sky School District School Board
announced the closure of Lone Peak High School as well as Ophir Middle and
Elementary School beginning March 16. Shortly before the start of the meeting,
Gov. Steve Bullock ordered the closure of all K-12 public schools throughout
the state of Montana.
The school board also
announced their plan to shift to an online format, according to BSSSD School
Board Chairman Loren Bough. “We’ve been using and creating technology and
platforms for the past five years,” Bough said regarding the district’s
preparedness for the online shift. “We’ve been very fortunate to have received
a number of grants that allow us to be a one-to-one school, meaning one device
per student. [These are] really the favorable preconditions of moving to an
online platform for meeting education requirements.”
BSSD Superintendent Dustin Shipman
believes all BSSD faculty and staff are equipped for this online move from an
educational standpoint. “I think they’re all ready, but certainly anytime
you’re taken out of what you were trained to do—a teacher is trained to be in a
classroom with kids—it’s always going to be just managing that change in the
delivery model,” he said. “We’re not wavering at all from our commitment to
educating students.”
The structure of the online
expectations for students is still being ironed out. Per a press release sent
out by the school board following the conclusion of the March 15 meeting,
details are on the way: “Please be patient in the
coming days as we communicate to students and families and expect each student
to have an educational plan communicated to them from their home room teacher,”
the statement said. “Monday, March 16th and Tuesday March 17th will
be planning days for teachers and students can expect to be contacted and
expect regular communication and interaction starting Wednesday the 18th.”
Gov. Bullock’s order called
for a two-week closure beginning March 16 and lasting until March 27 as events
continue to rapidly unfold in Big Sky, Gallatin County, Montana, and the country
regarding the COVID-19 coronavirus.
The order from Gov. Bullock
was made after the governor’s office recently announced the first six
presumptive positive cases of COVID-19 in Montana, including one in Gallatin
County. As of press time on March 16, aside from the Gallatin County case,
which was discovered in a male in his 40s, there are two cases in Missoula
County, one in Yellowstone County, one in Silver Bow County, and one in
Broadwater County, according to governor.mt.gov.
The BSSD’s closure comes on
the heels of Big Sky Resort’s announcement in a press release on the morning of
March 15 that it would suspend operations on March 16.
Bough believes the cancellation
will not affect LPHS graduation
on May 30. “Our current plan allows for a regularly scheduled graduation
and meeting of all academic requirements,” Bough said. “…We are continuing on
the academic plan that we have set out that meets requirements for all students
to move on to the next class and for graduation and for … earning an IB
diploma.”
While the school is closed,
the school board confirmed that all BSSD faculty and staff will continue to be
paid as contracted, Bough said.
The school will continue to
provide meals to students in need as well as expanding the offering to the
community of Big Sky. “All community members, anybody who’s lost their job,
anybody who’s at home with small kids … [The program] is not limited at all. It
will serve whoever needs it,” said BSSD Food Service Director Lindsie Hurlbut.
Tentatively, she added, meals will be offered to the public beginning March 17.
From 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.,
Monday through Friday, meals can be picked up at the Warren Miller Performing
Arts Center entrance. “We want to reach out as effectively as possible … and
help friends and neighbors that might be in danger of food insecurity in the
coming weeks and months,” Bough said.
Aside from classes, the LPHS
and OMES facilities are closed to the public indefinitely. WMPAC, housed under
the same roof as LPHS, had already announced in a March 12 press release that
it was canceling the final three events of the winter season.
At this point, the school
board maintains it will hold its previously scheduled meeting on March 17 at
3:30 p.m.
“We feel the governor is
making the right decision,” Bough said. “Social distancing seems to be the most
effective way to flatten the curve [and] we’re committed to flattening the
curve in terms of the infection rates here. Our belief as a district and a
board is that what appears alarmist today will appear inadequate tomorrow in
these kind of pandemic situations and were trying to be proactive.”
