With COVID-19 prevention measures in place, Fort Scott Community College began spring classes on January 11.

The following is an email interview with FSCC President Alysia Johnston.

Will you give an update on the new semester?

“Classes began Monday and we are always happy to have everyone back on campus. We continue to do our part to help prevent and mitigate the spread of COVID-19.”

“All individuals at all locations are required to wear a face mask while in buildings, or when outside if social distancing cannot be maintained.”

“No outside activities or groups will be allowed on campus, we will re-evaluate allowing outside groups and activities on February 1, 2021 to determine our policy moving forward.”

“All sports will be played this semester, including those that are typically played in the fall, such as football and volleyball. No fans will be allowed at sporting events through February 5, 2021, KJCCC will re-evaluate allowing fans on February 1,2021.”

“We will not have spring break and the semester will end April 30, with graduation on May 1, 2021.”

“We tested all of the residential students for COVID-19, around 350, and so far we have had 11 positives with 95% of the results back. The positive cases and their contacts are being isolated/quarantined.”

 

Brief summary of COVID 19 measures.

“All students living in campus housing were administered a COVID-19 test by CHC/SEK medical staff.”

“Students living in campus housing arrived and were tested in small groups.”

“Tom Havron, certified contact tracer, coordinated with the county health department to contact students concerning isolation or quarantine.”

“All individuals, at all locations are required to wear a face mask while in buildings, or when outside if social distancing cannot be maintained – individuals should social distance when possible.”

“Administration continues to monitor the Center for Disease Control, Kansas Department of Health and Environment and the World Health Organization  websites regularly for updated information on COVID-19 and communicate with Bourbon County Health Department and Bourbon County Emergency Management on current public guidelines.”

“The emergency Action plan is displayed on the FSCC website.”

“We will maintain our COVID-19 dashboard on the FSCC website which indicates number of positive cases, quarantined students, and recovered cases.”

 

From the http://fortscott.edu/covid19 website:

 

How many students have enrolled?

“Enrollment as of January 11, 2021 was 13,351 credit hours, which is down from last year at this time by 10%. We will increase enrollment with late start classes and some concurrent enrollment that has not been entered in the system; however, I believe we will still be down this semester compared to last semester.”

 

SPARK Grant Received To Help With COVID-19

 

FSCC received $287,000 on August 18, 2020, from a SPARK grant, distributed from the federal government to the Kansas government and then to the Bourbon County Commission for local distribution.

The college had unplanned expenses related to COVID-19 that were eligible for reimbursement under the SPARK grant, according to Julie Eichenberger, vice president of finance and operation.

The college used the monies for public health expenses such as sanitizing equipment, hand sanitizer, masks, thermometers, etc. she said.

“The grant was also used for technology for distance learning needs to facilitate remote learners, and for technology that gave our employees the ability to work from home,” Eichenberger said.

In addition, dorm capacity was increased to have available rooms for quarantine use, she said.

To view the prior feature on the dorm rooms being leased from the former Mercy Hospital corporation: https://fortscott.biz/news/fscc-classes-sta…some-big-changes ‎