By Michele Smith
The Times
Starbuck School District is open and prepared
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September 17, 2020
Michele Smith
Starbuck School District teacher Amanda Wade discussing the day's weather with her Kindergarten class. New desks were purchased by the District to comply with state requirements for social distancing.
STARBUCK-The town of Starbuck, nestled between Hwy. 12 and Lyons Ferry Marina, northeast of Dayton, has a small school district serving forty students.
All of the District's students, except for three who are distance learning, are being taught in real-time, since school began on Aug. 25.
Luann Truesdale, the office administrator, spoke of all the work that has gone into preparing the school to meet COVID-19 requirements for returning students.
She said "bubblers" were disconnected from drinking fountains and faucets, and faucets, soap, and towel dispensers were retrofitted to touchless systems.
Thermometers, disposable gloves, face masks, and face shields for a few of the students who are medically exempt from wearing face masks, were purchased, and hand sanitizer is in use everywhere.
All classrooms and school buses are disinfected every day.
"People don't realize how much this costs," Truesdale pointed out.
She said to meet social distancing requirements in the Kindergarten classroom the District had to buy new desks, at a cost between $3,000 and $4,000 for each.
She said Columbia County Health Department provided lanyards for students to clip to their face masks, but they were too long for the younger kids, and the District ended up buying pacifier hooks.
The District is also short of Google Chromebooks, Truesdale said. They cost $300 each with an additional $75 licensing fee each. The District still needs fifteen, which are on backorder.
The lack of reliable internet connectivity is an issue for some of the students who are distance learning.
Superintendent Kevin Graffis said one family lives seven miles out of town where connectivity is an issue. The District is working on getting the family set up with a hotspot to use at home.
The District has spent approximately $18,000 on COVID-19 preparations and is waiting to receive all of the $12,000 in allocated state funding.
Graffis said the District's current budget projects over the next four years, and while the forecast is good for this year and into the next, there could be budget problems midway through 2021.
The Starbuck School District doesn't run a levy, Graffis said that might need to be considered at some point.
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