Superintendent Dale Brungardt told board members of the EllsworthKanopolis-Geneseo School District Monday night he sees a light at the end of the tunnel as far as the coronavirus pandemic.

At the same time, he warned that everyone needs to be responsible and continue to wear masks and take other precautions to slow the spread of a virus that has been the major topic of discussion for months at board meetings.

“At some point we’ve got to stop talking about COVID and get back to education;’ Brungardt said.

The superintendent updated board members on conditions in the district, including new recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control on reduced periods of time in quarantine from 14 days. Kerianne Ehrlich from the Ellsworth County Health Department, notified commissioners about the policy change at Monday morning’s commission meeting.

She said the Kansas Department of Health and Environment turned the decision making over to individual counties and local public health officials decided to accept the recommendation.

Details are available on the health department’s Facebook page or on the Ellsworth County website, EllsworthCounty.org

Brungardt said the new recommendations are not tied to science. Instead, officials hope the reduced quarantine time will encourage compliance.

“This does not change the incubation period for COVID-19,” the superintendent said, adding that a 14-day quarantine period continues to be the best recommendation.

Brungardt showed board members a spread sheet with information on district quarantines and positive cases.

Between Sept. 3 and Nov. 19, USD 327 has had 143 students in quarantine with nine testing positive for the virus. Fourteen staff members have been in quarantine at some point during that same period with four testing positive.

Clusters appear around Halloween and Thanksgiving, which district officials believe points to student exposure of the virus away from school. District classrooms continue to be open, despite occasional individual hits.

“Our goal is to make it to Christmas now;’ Brungardt said.

If successful, the district can consider itself the winner of the first battle — getting through the semester without having to shut down in-person classes, he said.

In other business:

+ Board members approved a bid of $8,582 from City Plumbing for work on the sewer at the district office on Old Highway 40. The office building already receives water from the city and this project will link it to the city sewer system.

+ Board members voiced their appreciation to staff, including substitute teachers, administrators, kitchen workers, students and others involved with the continuation of on-site classes in the face of COVID-19.

+ Brungardt and board members went into three executive sessions, one of which preceded board ratification of the 2020-21 master agreement with licensed staff.

+ The board also approved Jaide Talbott as a classified substitute; and Camille Beckman, MaKentzee Chappel, Lindsey Gack and Maddy Nowlin as emergency substitutes.

The next regular board meeting will be at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 11.