Local schools off to a good start

The eastern-most school districts of Shoshone County are back into full swing, albeit under some new-look, pandemic-friendly scheduling and settings.

Both Wallace and Mullan began school on Aug. 27, but school doesn't look the same from one district to the other.

Under the “yellow” designation – courtesy of the Panhandle Health District – students in the Wallace School District have begun their year on an alternating schedule, with a blend of in-class and remote/digital learning.

According to new WSD superintendent Todd Howard, the first few days went about as good as expected with minimal hiccups and students seemingly adjusting to their current situation.

“Outside of two or three students showing up on the wrong day of the A/B schedule the logistics of the first two days went very well,” Howard said. “Students and staff were excited to get back to school and to their routine. Thursday and Friday (the first two days of school) provided multiple examples of the positive attitude and culture of the Wallace School District.”

Howard was thrilled with how the students and parents have responded to the district’s reopening plan and complimented his staff for going above and beyond to make it as painless as possible for families.

“The extra time and effort through the summer is really paying off,” Howard said. “We had a vast amount of information that had to go out to our families and everyone pitched in to do their part to relay that information.”

As well as it has gone, Howard is also aware that there are still improvements to be made.

Improvements to various transportation issues (pick up and drop off times), cafeteria concerns, technology struggles, and supply orders were among a few things that Howard pointed out, but he is confident that his administrative team will have the issues addressed and rectified soon.

In Mullan, the student population is significantly lower than their immediate neighbors in Wallace, which means that under the “yellow” designation they can still attend school full-time, but with very strict social distancing guidelines in place for every student and teacher.

Their first few days were rather busy as many of the kids were involved in either football or volleyball games which had them on the road on both Thursday and Friday.

Mullan Jr./Sr. High School principal Don Kotschevar was as pleased as his students were to be back in school and it was reflected in how those first days went.

“It went better than expected,” Kotschevar said. “Students were excellent with their behavior and started hitting the books right away. You can just tell that the kids are glad to be back.”

Mullan has taken an unusual approach to their school year by having their in-person instruction be online based so that students can utilize both their teachers and the online resources that come with online learning, which should be beneficial to them should the schools be forced to go into a full shutdown again.

“This will give our students and teachers a better understanding of what the expectations are for online classrooms and e-learning,” Kotschevar said. “This way students can continue learning if absent and if we need to go back to e-learning we will be even more successful.”

The Kellogg School District will reopen on Sept. 10.