For the Clarion County Career Center, navigating through the COVID-19 pandemic has been challenging to say the least but some of the strain on the students and instructors might ease off at the turn of the New Year.
The Clarion County Career Center Joint Operations Committee voted to reopen the Career Center in a hybrid model Jan. 11 at the JOC regular voting meeting held Dec. 22 via Zoom.
The hybrid opening plan passed by an 8-2 margin with Jill Foys representing North Clarion and Braxton White representing Clarion voting against the measure.
The Career Center will hold classes four days per week with Wednesdays being designated a remote/prep day.
Students from Union and Clarion-Limestone would attend classes Monday mornings. Redbank Valley and C-L students would attend classes Tuesday mornings. North Clarion and Union students would attend classes Thursday mornings while North Clarion and Redbank Valley students will attend classes Friday mornings. Keystone students will attend Career Center classes Monday and Tuesday afternoons while A-C Valley and Clarion Area students will attend classes Thursday and Friday afternoons.
Clarion County Career Center Director of Career and Technical Education Traci Wildeson said she separated the students based on numbers and what the sending schools were doing with their hybrid plans.
Wildeson said she had mixed feelings about reopening the facility for face-to-face instruction.
“I would love to see the kids back in school,” Wildeson said. “But there is a concern of what will happen over Christmas. What will we be coming back into and how many exposures and how many cases will we have coming out of Christmas?
“My biggest concern is when it comes to staff. If I have staff that isn’t able to return after Christmas or possibly get sick when they come back, I have a concern of how I will cover that.”
However, Wildeson also believes the students not being in the building for instruction is detrimental.
“The students need the hands-on (instruction),” Wildeson said. “It is a concern for me that they are not receiving that hands-on instruction and just getting the theory. We are losing their engagement as well and that is a concern for me. We have seen some students who were excited for classes when the year started but aren’t as excited now. They come to (the Career Center) for that kinetic hands-on learning and they are not receiving it.”
JOC Vice-Chairman James Beary (Keystone) queried Wildeson as to what the participation rate was for students in the current remote learning format.
“We have some programs where students are doing very well and we have some programs that aren’t doing well (in remote instruction),” Wildeson said. “The programs that aren’t doing as well on the remote learning are those that tend to be more of a heavy’ shop where their main focus is that hands-on learning.
“Those programs that are more academically based, students are doing better because the students are used to theory even (during in-person instruction). We have four programs where there are anywhere from 24-percent to 46-percent of the students are struggling with remote learning.”
Wildeson said she and her staff are contacting parents of students who are not attending the remote classes in a variety of ways just to keep the students engaged such as; the Career Center staff has called those parents by phone daily or every other day, sent out one-call messages to families, sent weekly letters to families, called offering tutoring, offer daily tutoring by phone or Zoom.
However, Wildeson said for some students, remote learning is not something they can handle very well and they are going to struggle.
When it came to the safety of those in the facility, Wildeson pointed out the Career Center faculty and staff did a good job in COVID-19 mitigation efforts when the school was in session the first nine weeks of the school year.
“The cases that we did have we only had to contract trace to four people,” Wildeson said. “I think that speaks to the instructors, aides and staff and everything they did to make sure we practiced social distancing and mask wearing.”
With Clarion County in the substantial transmission phase for COVID-19, it was recommended by the Centers for Disease Control, the Pennsylvania Department of Health and the Pennsylvania Department of Education that schools return to face-to-face instruction in a hybrid model.
Originally, the Career Center was set to resume in-person classes in the hybrid model Jan. 4 but the committee voted to change the reopening date to Jan. 11 in order to give the committee time to look at the infection rates after the holiday break as well as give instructors time for planning and preparation.
If there is an increase in cases in the county before the Jan. 11 reopening date, Wildeson and the committee will call an emergency meeting to discuss the reopening plans.
In other business, the Career Center JOC held its reorganization for 2021. Joe Billote will remain as JOC chairman while Beary will remain as vice chairman.
Foys will resume her role as treasurer. The JOC also expanded the negotiating committee to a three-person panel. White was appointed to the negotiating committee.
The chairman and the vice chairman are the other two members of the negotiating committee.