Tidioute Community Charter School is less than two weeks away from opening day.

The first day of school for more than 300 students from four counties is Thursday, Aug. 20.

On Monday, the charter school held a focus group meeting to help share information about how school will look.

Principal and CEO Dr. Doug Allen said the purpose of the meeting was to announce changes to the re-opening plan.

“The purpose of this meeting is an update,” he said. “Our return-to-school plan is an in-person plan. We approved that on July 1.”

“Kids come on the 20th,” Allen said. “I think we’ll be ready.”

There is a chance that the board and administration will have to make more changes. “The governor, the Department of Education, might throw us a curveball,” he said.

There will be kiosks at each of the three entrances to the school. Each student will pass a kiosk. The equipment, funded by grant dollars, will have facial recognition software and will take each students’ temperature.

The kiosk will greet the student by name, announce his or her temperature, give a reminder to wear a mask, and wish them a pleasant day, Allen said.

The kiosks will be able to recognize the students whether they are wearing masks or not.

Those who have temperatures of 100 degrees or higher will be asked to remain where they are while a member of the staff is contacted.

The temperature process takes about two seconds per student, he said.

“Some school districts have decided against the temp checks,” Allen said. “We’re going to do them because we think we can because of our size.”

To align with social distancing requirements, the school has had to move away from a ‘tables’ philosophy that encourages student collaboration and group work.

Allen said desks have been purchased and have been placed six feet apart.

Students will be required to wear masks when they move around in their classrooms or are outside the classroom.

“Our parents seem to have a lot of concerns about masks,” Allen said.

Allen talked about the school’s ‘flip plan’ — a contingency plan in case a COVID-19 case or a government mandate requires that students be educated virtually.

“We’re not trying to be the (Warren County School District) Virtual Academy,” he said. “We’re not a cyber school.”

But, the school is ready if it has to deliver education to students who are not in the building.

There are different plans depending on the extent of the shutdown. If second grade has to quarantine for two days, the plan is somewhat different than if the entire school is closed for three weeks on the order of the governor.

The plan is intended to “ensure that the students will get the same education as if they were in school,” Assistant Principal Ryan Guerra said. “We’re trying to make it where the parents are a support and just doing a parent’s job, not being teachers.”

“One of our big questions is what if I do not have connectivity,” Guerra said. “When we did this flip in the spring, we were able to connect with all families. If kids weren’t online, the administrative team here made calls.”

Students will have textbooks and workbooks at home and will be able to call in to class. “They will be able to follow along,” Guerra said.

One of the most difficult situations to plan for would be a COVID case in a high school student, Allen said. Contact tracing of one student could lead to 10 teachers — nearly one-third of the teaching staff — having to quarantine at the same time.

There are certain students who will be working virtually from the beginning of the school year, Allen said. Due to health circumstances of the students or immediate family members, they have been approved to work from home.

“Certain families have requested that they be allowed to stay at home,” Allen said. “We do have some at-home learners.”

If those families decide to return their students to in-person schooling, they may do so. “They will follow their schedule here in the building,” Allen said. “If they want to transition back, they can do that at the start of each nine weeks.”

The school is working with a cleaning consultant.

“We walked around the entire building and assessed every building,” Assistant Principal Ryan Steffan said. “He is developing a cleaning schedule for our full-time cleaner.”

That schedule will include a “deep-clean at the end of every day from 4 to 6.”

Athletics

There will be no interscholastic athletics this fall at Tidioute.

“We have made the decision to forego participation in fall athletics,” Guerra said. “It’s more important to keep our staff and students safe.”

There will be volleyball and junior high basketball — the opponents will be in-house.

“We are not just going to cancel our program,” Guerra said. “Our biggest concern was travel to other schools. We are going to set up intramurals and games each week.”

The previous plan called for restrictions on athletic events, including that there would be no spectators allowed.

That restriction remains in place.

“We plan to broadcast our Black and Orange scrimmages,” Guerra said.

Intramural contests will be held unless the PIAA or Gov. Tom Wolf call for the cancellation of all athletics.

Tour

School officials plan to post a virtual tour of the school on the website — www.tidioutecharter.com — by the beginning of the week to help students and families get a look inside the building at the changes that have been put in place.