Mendota High Superintendent Jeff Prusator tells board in-person learning 'a success story'

Mendota High School Superintendent Jeff Prusator told the Board of Education at Monday’s meeting the first six weeks of in-person learning has been “a success story.”

“We couldn’t have anticipated things going any better than they have,” Prusator said.

Mendota has had seven positive COVID-19 cases — four among students and three among staff — and Prusator said all the cases were brought from outside the school.

MHS has continued to have strong attendance despite some students and staff having to quarantine, recording 90% attendance Monday, Prusator said.

“I feel really good we’re one of the few high schools in the area that is in session five days a week all day,” Prusator said. “That’s the result of the work put in this summer by everybody. The students have really been remarkable in how they’ve worn their masks and how they’ve done everything we’ve asked them to do.”

Prusator said the administration’s biggest worry is a situation where the school doesn’t have enough teachers/staff available because of them having to quarantine.

“If that happens, our recommendation would be go to remote learning for two weeks, get over the 14-day quarantine period and try again,” Prusator said. In other business, the board approved the addition of physical science as a freshman level course staring in the 2021-22 school year.

In other business, the board approved the addition of physical science as a freshman level course staring in the 2021-22 school year.

Students could go from physical science into biology or agriculture science to fulfill their two-year science requirement or could continue on to further courses, such as chemistry, anatomy, physics or earth science.

“Students could really keep growing off this by shooting into biology or agriculture science,” MHS principal Denise Aughenbaugh said. “We feel it’s going to give students a lot of good opportunities. The science department has really been working together and collaborating on this, looking at what we currently offer, reviewing the state requirements and making adjustments as needed.”

The board also accepted the resignation of administrative assistant Stacie Biers and hired Patti Blumhorst as administrative assistant and Lucille Knuth as custodian.