Supt

A whirlwind, or maybe just a blur, would be how I would describe the past six months as a school superintendent.  I can tell you one thing…. I can’t wait until we can start meeting in person again!   I am sure, everyone is learning something new every day about COVID-19 in regards to  precautions, procedures, and recommendations.  Yes, there are a lot of different opinions floating around, but it is here and we have to prepare for the unexpected.  There are a couple of things that I would like to get out in the open so that everyone is on the same page.  

The first topic that I would like to address deals with notifying the public if there is a positive COVID-19 case.  After countless Zoom meetings and conversations with our school attorney, we need the public to know that our school cannot send out a public statement or notify staff/board members about a positive COVID-19 case without the direct permission of the person or the parent/guardian of the student, unless we are directed to do so by West Central Health Department in North Platte.  The health department has the authority to give permission to schools to release information if the situation is going to hinder/affect the operations of the school environment.  While we always want to remain transparent and communicative during this pandemic, it is also necessary to understand that HIPPA laws prevent release of some of this information without consent. As we move forward, we will do our best to keep staff/students/parents/community informed as we are allowed, while still maintaining student/staff privacy.

The second topic that I would like to address is athletics and attendance at games.  I want to be fully transparent about this topic as I know there will be some that struggle with what I am going to write about.  When we are attending a game on the road, it will be required that we follow the procedures and protocols of that school district.  If they want to check your temperature prior to attending, you will have to allow  them to do so. If they require us to wear masks, then we will wear masks. If you are not comfortable with these procedures, please do not hesitate to stay home and watch it on Striv.  This is non-negotiable as we are the visiting team, and we must respect the guidelines of the district that we are visiting.  When we have home games, we have a set of procedures that we will follow.  Sometimes, we will have to require masks.  For instance, if one of the visiting volleyball teams is coming from a zone that is currently in the yellow (moderate risk) or orange (elevated risk) then we are going to require masks for all of the people in attendance so as to protect our school and community from possible spread. In the instance the opposing school is in the green zone, we will highly recommend masks but not require them since the risk may not be as great.  We also may have to adjust spectator capacity in certain situations. Most importantly, if you don’t feel safe in any environment, please stay home and watch your favorite Broncos on Striv at https://striv.tv/channel/mullen/.  If it is not on Striv, we will provide the link to all of the action.   All of our pandemic plans are on our website under Mullen Pandemic Plans in the document section.

Overall, we are just very excited about being in school and having the kids back with us.  And of course, we are all very excited to be back to athletics and activities as well!  Our kids finally GET TO compete again! Cross Country heads to Scottsbluff for a Thursday meet, Girls golf heads to Ainsworth for a Thursday meet, Volleyball heads to Maxwell on Thursday afternoon, and  the Football team takes on Sandhills/Thedford in Thedford on Friday.  We will be releasing information via our school website on the news feed and we will link this information to Facebook as well. as soon as we receive it on all contests.  As always, it’s a great day to be a Bronco!  Thanks for all of your support of Mullen Public Schools!