(ROSENDALE, Mo.) What's the biggest challenge facing school district officials as they work to get students back in the classroom? The unknown.
"How things look today based on the information we have may be completely different in a month." North Andrew 6-12 principal Christopher Russo said.
The plan's still evolving for North Andrew and administrators know people want answers.
"There's obviously a level of frustration and the community wants to know and parents want to know, kids want to know, and so do teachers, but we're using this information as a building process,” Russo said. “Where our plan is today, it may have to be altered. It’s a fluid situation.”
For a small district like North Andrew, the problems look different due to the size of classrooms.
"It's going to be easier for us than bigger school districts obviously because our class sizes average around 15-16 to 25, so space is easier to do, but we're going to have some tight spots and some things we're going to have to adjust,” North Andrew superintendent Mark McDaniel said.
District officials will have to look at new sanitary measures as well as how much lunch times will operate, but school leaders want in-person learning this fall.
"I think it's good to get kids back here and that's got to be the goal to educate them and I think that's what's best for kids, so our goal is to do that in a safe environment,” McDaniel said.
Officials want that in-person learning, but as they've seen before, things can change instantly.
“Just not normal times and there’s not a true policy for it but we’re going to try to do the best we can,” McDaniel said. “Number one, to get kids in the building and get back to their education that they need but number two, be ready in case we can’t.”
The district will continue to work on the plan for the next few weeks.