Coronavirus roundup for March 22: Decatur County locks down; BCSC update; Indiana Guard
Decatur County closes all but essential businesses
Decatur County is declaring emergency measures to fight the spread of the coronavirus including closing all but essential businesses.
The order goes into effect Monday, March 23rd at 8 a.m. According to the Decatur County Commissioners emergency ordinance:
For a period of two weeks, only critical or essential business should remain open. All other non-essential businesses should remain closed. Only those organizations providing essential services such as community food assistance, Meals on Wheels, counseling services, transportation assistance, and the like may remain open subject to further review.
Critical businesses include, but are not limited to:
- All health care service providers, including doctor offices, hospitals, pharmacies, and therapy establishments;
- Essential City of Greensburg and Decatur County governmental service offices;
- Grocery Stores;
- Funeral homes;
- Banks, lending institutions and all other related businesses;
- Gas stations and auto repair businesses;
- Convenience stores;
- Dollar” stores;
- Day care facilities;
- Restaurants and bars (carry out, delivery, and drive up only;
- Utility and Trash Services
- Airport;
- Postal Services/ Delivery Services;
- Veterinarian clinics;
- Home improvement/hardware;
- Hotels/Motels;
- Laundromats;
- Public Transportation;
- Agricultural Operations;
- Legal Services;
- Social Service agencies such as the Red Cross, Salvation Army, etc.;
Officials are also recommending that travel be limited to essential business only, such as grocery, medical, pharmacy, or work. There should be no public gatherings of more than ten people and all residents are to attempt at all possible times to maintain a social distance of six feet or more from others. The 10-person restriction does not apply to work places so long as the social distancing guidelines are followed and internal safeguards are put in place with regard to cleaning and social distancing.
Refusal to comply may result in suspension of permits as well as fines by order of the Decatur County Health Department and the Health Officer.
BCSC clarifies waiver days
From: Dr. Jim Roberts, BCSC superintendent
Since we have received a number of questions regarding waiver days, we hope the following can better clarify:
- Indiana public schools are required to have 180 student instructional days.
- On Thursday, March 12, 2020, Governor Holcomb announced that all public schools would be allowed to claim up to 20 waiver days; in other words, 160 student instructional days (180 20) would be the new requirement for completing this 2019-2020 school year.
- On Thursday, March 19, 2020, Governor Holcomb announced that all public schools would be closed through at least Friday, May 1 with consideration given at a later date as to whether or not schools would reopen at all this school year.
- Given the possibility that schools would not be allowed to reopen, we made the decision to begin employing waiver days immediately by using two (2) per week through the end of the school year.
- Two (2) waiver days plus three (3) eLearning days per week gets us to the necessary 160 instructional days to complete the school year and NOT have to make up any days in June or July. Waiver days will be employed on Mondays and Fridays and eLearning conducted on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays.
- On eLearning days, students ARE attending school and required to check itslearning for assigned work. Teachers will be available online from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.
- On waiver days, students are NOT attending school (not required to be online) but can certainly use the time to work on assignments. As a school corporation, we will continue to utilize these days to meet the needs of our students. Meals will be provided, phone lines will be open, and teachers will be preparing lessons and assessing completed work on ALL days listed on the BCSC school calendar (not Good Friday or Memorial Day).