{"id":136569,"date":"2020-10-28T23:02:16","date_gmt":"2020-10-29T04:02:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=136569"},"modified":"2020-10-29T22:34:58","modified_gmt":"2020-10-30T03:34:58","slug":"vwcs-board-hears-updates-on-covid-19-hires-coaches","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2020\/10\/28\/vwcs-board-hears-updates-on-covid-19-hires-coaches\/","title":{"rendered":"VWCS Board hears updates on COVID-19"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

SCOTT TRUXELL\/<\/strong>independent writer<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

At least to this point, the spread of COVID-19 hasn\u2019t happened in Van Wert City Schools. That was the word from Superintendent Mark Bagley during Wednesday\u2019s City Board of Education meeting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Superintendent Mark Bagley updates the Van Wert City Board of Education on the district’s COVID-19 situation, while District Treasurer Michelle Mawer looks on. Scott Truxell\/Van Wert independent<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe currently have three cases that will be coming off the books shortly and we have 42 quarantined right now,\u201d Bagley said. \u201cWhat we\u2019re doing with our superintendent’s groups right now is we are charting (cases) and we\u2019re at about 78 for the year and the number of those that actually had COVID is zero. So the spread \u2026 we know it\u2019s in the community, we know it\u2019s in the area, but it\u2019s not happening in the school right now.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m very pleased about how our staff and how our students have worked together as a team to want to be here,\u201d Bagley added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bagley informed the board that 10 percent of Van Wert students are currently doing remote learning and he said, with COVID-19 concerns in mind, discussions will begin soon on how to handle upcoming parent-teacher conferences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have to find a smart way to do that and a lot of those will be virtual and we\u2019ll also go with the phone, but some parents want to come in and meet with our teachers,\u201d Bagley explained. \u201cWe can do it safely and we can spread out.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During his report to the board, Assistant Superintendent Bill Clifton said the school system is currently dealing with a substitute shortage, including substitute teachers, custodians, food service workers, and paraprofessionals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnybody who has an interest in working, we\u2019re willing to interview them and potentially get them on board to help our school district out,\u201d Clifton said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

The board heard a brief presentation from Van Wert High School music teacher Julia Reichert, Van Wert Middle School music teacher Melissa Bloomfield, and several members of the choir. They group explained the ways the music department is dealing with COVID-19, including spacing singers, singing in small ensembles and singing while wearing masks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A long list of winter sports coaches was approved by the board, including Ben Laudick, varsity boys\u2019 basketball head coach; Sam Boehnlein, assistant varsity boys\u2019 basketball coach; Josiah Poletta, JV boys\u2019 basketball coach; Jeff Hood, boys\u2019 freshman basketball coach; Brandon Miller, boys’ varsity volunteer assistant coach; Kerry Koontz, eighth grade boys\u2019 basketball; Nate Hoverman, seventh grade boys\u2019 basketball; Hannah Phlipot, girls\u2019 varsity basketball head coach; Harry Florence, girls\u2019 varsity assistant; Kelsey Wertz, girls\u2019 JV coach; Jared Loughrie, Reagan Priest, girls’ varsity assistants; Eli Alvarez, girls\u2019 eighth grade basketball coach; Troy Hoffman, girls\u2019 seventh grade basketball coach; Kevin Decker, boys\/girls head bowling coach; Stan Bladen, assistant bowling; Seth Blackmore, volunteer bowling assistant; Ben Collins, varsity head wrestling coach; Mark Collins, Austin McIntosh, Colten Royer, Terrin Contreras, assistant wrestling coaches; Brad Allmandinger, middle school wrestling coach; Chris Heath, middle school wrestling assistant; Megan Hurless, boys\/girls head swimming coach; Keith Rydell, assistant swimming; Samantha Fleming, high school basketball head cheerleading coach; Selena Witten, basketball cheerleading volunteer assistant, and Tiffany Werts, middle school basketball cheerleading coach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Board members accepted the retirement resignation of custodian Dan Freund, effective January 4, 2021; Early Childhood Center paraprofessional Ashley Rickard; and assistant maintenance director Gregg Scheidt, effective December 31. Scheidt will become the new maintenance director on January 1, 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In other business, the board approved an agreement with Therapy Solutions for physical therapy services for the current school year and board members accepted several donations, including $1,000 from First Federal Bank for high school robotics; $2,500 from Trevor and Whitney Webster for the athletic department; $1,500 from Van Wert Health for the elementary wellness program; $50 from Bruce and Ruth Ann Dowler for the National Honor Society; $275 from Sealscott CPA for the high school football program; $500 from Citizens National Bank for high school robotics and $3,500 from Van Wert Federal Savings Bank for the athletic department. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The board also accepted a donation of $2,375 from multiple individuals in memory of former teacher Chris Raines for the special education department.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The next meeting of the Van Wert City Board of Education is scheduled for 5 p.m. Wednesday, November 18.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SCOTT TRUXELL\/independent writer At least to this point, the spread of COVID-19 hasn\u2019t happened in Van Wert City Schools. That was the word from Superintendent Mark Bagley during Wednesday\u2019s City Board of Education meeting. \u201cWe currently have three cases that will be coming off the books shortly and we have 42 quarantined right now,\u201d Bagley […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-136569","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-24 03:03:24","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136569","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=136569"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136569\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=136569"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=136569"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=136569"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}