Sandy Petrovich, superintendent, GACS

GWINN — Chromebooks and ClassDojo are playing a part in Gwinn Area Community Schools’ shift from brick-and-mortar instruction to distance learning following Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s Executive Order 2020-35, which suspended in-person K-12 instruction for the remainder of the 2019-20 school year.

GACS Superintendent Sandy Petrovich talked about what has taken place in the district during the changes brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic during a Monday board of education meeting that was held via Zoom.

“All student assessments were canceled, for example, with the junior SAT next fall,” said Petrovich, who added no makeup days are required of the district because it has its learning plan in place.

School ends on June 5, she said.

“The order does require us to pay all of our employees, and so, just know that we are sticking to essential work for the month of April,” Petrovich said.

Food service employees, she noted, have been rotating by the week so they aren’t on school property every day and exposure risk is reduced.

Petrovich said the district’s continuity of learning plan, which was approved by the Marquette-Alger Regional Educational Service Agency, is on its website at gwinnschools.org under the “transparency” button.

“I’ve seen some of those lessons,” Petrovich said. “It’s amazing what teachers can do when they are given a few online tools and some creativity. And who wouldn’t want to engage in that learning? And I’m really hoping that our families will, and particularly the students, of course, because we cannot hold any student in a penalty mode for not participating.”

However, she said the hope is that students and parents think about the 2020-21 school year.

“It might not impact them so much now, but I think it’s really going to have an effect when they come back in the fall if they haven’t been with us for the next two months,” Petrovich said.

Gwinn Middle/High School Principal Brad Pfluger said whether the high school graduation ceremony takes place will depend how the governor’s “Stay Safe, Stay Home” order plays out.

There’s a strong possibility that will have to change whether it’s a different date, same style, the event itself might have to change, he said.

“Could it be outside? Will it have to be virtual?” Pfluger said.

Whatever the outcome, he said there will be multiple plans of how to proceed.

Marci Paulsen, principal at Gilbert and K.I. Sawyer elementary schools, said teachers have been using the ClassDojo app.

“I’d say 93 to 95% of our kids in elementary land are on Dojo,” Paulsen said. “Our parents are on Dojo. So, we decided to use Google Slides as our device to send out our lessons to kind of organize that for parents.”

Petrovich also addressed the newly passed sinking fund.

She said staff will need to determine, along with the building and site committee, what projects would be completed first.

“Would we consider doing any of those projects yet this summer?” Petrovich asked. “If so, what does that borrowing look like to do that? Because we can borrow against that tax revenue.”

She noted the district is not going to see that revenue until the winter tax collection.

Petrovich used the Sawyer sinks and drinking fountains being closed off due to lead content as a project example.

Petrovich said it if was too cost-prohibitive to borrow against that collection, then the district would have to wait until that collection and make those repairs the summer of 2021.

“Projects such as plumbing, for example, you would need to do when kids weren’t going to be in school,” she said.

Petrovich said information on the projects listed for the first year of the sinking fund is on the district website.

Christie Mastric can be reached at cbleck@miningjournal.net.