FAIRMONT — On Friday Governor Tim Walz signed Executive Order 20-94, which makes technical adjustments to the Safe Learning Plan outlined in Executive Order 20-82. The new order provides some much needed clarity around certain topics such as who qualifies for no-cost school-age care for children of critical workers, face covering requirements in school buildings, and making life a little easier on teachers during the current pandemic.

Fairmont Area Schools Superintendent Joe Brown shared his insight on the order.

“The big thing is really two-fold,” he said. “One, it clarifies who’s eligible when we do daycare for tier one essential workers. But more importantly, they’re proposing that by November 30, all teachers are given an extra 30 minutes per day for planning and preparation.”

The order specifically states that, upon approval by the Executive Council, a school district or charter school must count 30 minutes per day for teacher preparation to provide instruction to students in distance learning or a distance learning or hybrid learning model, as instructional time toward meeting the minimum hours required by Minnesota Statutes 2019, section 120A.41. This teacher preparation time is for students receiving instruction in distance learning or a distance learning or hybrid model. This time is in addition to a school district’s or charter school’s teacher preparation time established under Minnesota Statutes 2019, section 122A.50.

Brown shares that discussions are already underway concerning how to best implement the order.

“Our administrative team met with one of our school board members and we’re going to come up with a plan,” he said. “What this plan really suggests is that you cut the school day by 30 minutes so teachers have more time to plan.

“I just sent an alternative proposal to the state department to see if we could do something a little bit different. We would still have the same amount of additional prep time, it’s just that we would do Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday one way, and Wednesday another way.”

Brown notes that the plan has to be put in place by November 30, and that work will be under way over the next week and a half to discuss what is best for both teachers and students. The plan will then be taken to the school board on November 24 for review, to be put in place on November 30.

Again, the issues addressed by the order are simple matters of clarifying the Governor’s previous executive order. Brown notes that widespread rumors about schools being shut down are simply not true.

“There were a lot of rumors flying around that he was going to shut us down and that never came up,” said Brown. “Those are all false.

“We were also briefed about the fact that the number of COVID-19 cases are going up. The hospitals are filling up, and we want to once again emphasize that if people would just follow the CDC guidelines, mask up, socially distance, and stay out of large groups, we could maybe keep our numbers somewhat low. All we can do is take care of ourselves.”