Now that the school year has wrapped up for the Adair-Casey/Guthrie Center School District, the top administrator shares his thoughts on how the year went.

AC/GC Superintendent Dennis McClain says last summer they had to develop a return to learn plan for students, while also constantly making adjustments for COVID-19 mitigation efforts as recommendations and guidelines changed with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Iowa Department of Public Health. However, other than taking a couple of additional days off during Thanksgiving break to curb the tide of increasing positive cases, McClain believes they had a successful year of having kids in the classroom.

“I’d like to commend the school board for their role in that, and our teachers and staff, and our parents and students too. Because we really had a great year despite all the distractions and hurdles that were put in front of us.”  

McClain points out an area the district will continue to do, after seeing success of having electronic platforms of using Google Classroom and Seesaw Learning Hub to cater mostly to students who were remote learning this past year.

“What we found is that really worked well for our kids who were here also because they always had access to that stuff. So they could always see the materials that the teacher was putting out for everyone. If they’re sick, or are missing a day, or what have you, they can always go there and it’s always there. So that’s something that will continue on.”

McClain is hopeful that as more people get vaccinated against COVID-19 and if the vaccine is accessible for younger children, that next year will look even more normal than the end of this year.