Loveland Schools Superintendent Mike Broadwater makes all decisions for keeping the kids in the classroom

By Chuck Gibson

LOVELAND, OH (January 15, 2022) – During a week which started with publication of an independent petition on masking students at Loveland, and then concluded with two days of “asynchronous” learning and an announcement the current hybrid mask policy would remain in place beyond the original January 18, revision to all grades mask optional, Superintendent Mike Broadwater remains steadfast in his focus on keeping students and staff safe in the classroom.

Where exactly does a petition (not sanctioned by Loveland City School District LCSD) fit into the decision process for school leadership? Superintendent Mike Broadwater says such a petition, or any other opinions offered by the community receive due attention. The school leadership, including the Board of Education (BOE) look at any type of data points they can get, but also weigh in whether the information is valid or not.

“At the end of the day, we, the leaders, are here to make a decision based on educating children and keeping kids in school,” said Broadwater. “I listen to board members. I listen to community members. Then I have to make a decision on what is best for keeping kids in school.”

In every conversation or pointed discussion on these matters surrounding COVID policies; whether masking, not masking, remote learning, in-class, or quarantining, Mike Broadwater consistently affirms his focus on keeping students in the classroom and in a learning environment which promotes healthy educational progress. He does not relent on achieving high academic standards while protecting the physical and emotional health of students and staff in this current pandemic world. Compared with surrounding school districts and similar districts throughout Ohio evidence points to his current decisions are working well. He says data indicates LCSD has done better than the majority of districts out there. The current Omicron variant was not anticipated, has proven more contagious and there are all kinds of studies saying different things.

“I don’t get into that. I just get into how I can keep kids in school,” Broadwater said. “We’ve done a pretty good job with that.”

Broadwater says he always listens and has received a number of emails from the community. Remember, the original plan was to make all buildings mask optional right out of break. They factored in the holiday break which moved the mask optional plan to Tuesday, January 18, following the Martin Luther King Jr. Day long weekend. They could not factor in Omicron. They have reported attendance rates in every communication with the school community. Absences have risen since the return from holiday break causing them to hold steady with the mask policy, not making any change now, but looking at the spike before deciding to make any changes.

“My concern now is keeping kids in class, but we have to have staff in class,” said Broadwater. “Right now, that’s the issue. All around us districts are struggling with staffing.”

Mask required or mask optional, despite the highly contagious nature of Omicron, Loveland schools are not seeing varied results no matter what the mask policy is Broadwater pointed out. The student absence rate his risen to near 15% overall. The percentage of absences, which Broadwater closely tracks every day, is the same for the Pre-K thru 6 where masks are required as it is for grades 7-12 where masks are optional. No varied rate is seen.

“Policy will not stop a pandemic. We’re in the middle of a pandemic. We’re trying to manage. What I can say is to change right now is not wise.” – Mike Broadwater, Superintendent, LCSD

Broadwater holds out hope that after next week (beginning January 24,) we will see a break in the increasing absences for students and teaching staff. Shortly after having this discussion early Tuesday afternoon, he announced the decision to shift to asynchronous learning for Thursday and Friday allowing for the three day weekend to give them a five-day window to clean the buildings, take the five-day quarantine for existing cases and return healthier to a refreshed buildings. It is equally important to keep the buildings running. Making the asynchronous decision made Tuesday an especially tough day for Mike Broadwater.

RECAPPING THE DECISION PROCESS

Mike Broadwater is focusing on policy decisions to keep kids in school in a healthy educational environment. Every Friday morning he meets with Greg Kesterman, Hamilton County Public Health and Dr. Stephen Feagins, Infectious Control Director, and all area Superintendents. They sit down and review their numbers. He sees communication telling what each district is doing. They work together, but as Broadwater points out, at the end of the day, they each work for their own individual community.

“Every single day it weighs very heavy on my mind,” said Broadwater. “I am responsible for kids and staff. Nobody has controlled this. We’ve done a pretty good job managing. I’m hoping a week, or two this subsides and we move forward.”

Broadwater gives the BOE members updates every week for everything plus COVID. Lately, he has talked to members of the board every single day. He says if the board meets and decides to do it differently, they have that power. Still the decision and responsibility lies with him.

“There is no easy answer. It weighs heavily on my mind,” Broadwater repeated. “Also the mental health of students, getting back to where they can enjoy some of the things school is about. The biggest thing is we have to keep kids in the building. Sometimes we have to adjust to do that.”

Broadwater says we all are aware we’re in a pandemic, but it is important to show one another patience and grace. They are trying to focus on the kids and figure out what is best for their educational balance.

“The end all focus is: are our kids able to enjoy the classroom experience, enjoy the school experience,” he asked. “Are they able to stay in school?”

Broadwater is in his 34th year as an educator – either as a teacher, or in most recent years as an administrator. He has seen a lot without saying he’s seen it all. 

“Not extremely high. I’ve seen it higher when we had whooping cough go through the schools,” Broadwater explained. “I’ve been in districts where we closed the buildings for a week because whooping cough took over.”

He said absence rates were at 30% then. The past week LCSD reported a rate of absence higher than normal, but still only 15% compared against that 30% absence rate during whooping cough.  Broadwater does not want us to forget not all of the 15% absences are COVID. In fact, he pulled up the absence report for that day (Tuesday, January 11) revealing 627 total student absences with 244 of those COVID related (could be exposure, positive test, or somewhere in their 5-day required quarantine due to either of those reasons). That equates to only 38+% of the total student absences resulting from COVID/Omicron.

“We do what we have to make sure we’re taking care of our kids,” said Broadwater. “No decision is 100% popular.”

One thing remains true in talking with Loveland Schools Superintendent Mike Broadwater, he is weighing every decision carefully based on the best information available. He weighs every decision with educating our kids in a safe and healthy environment at the forefront of that process. He watches for and listens to the data available with providing a good education experience for the students first in his mind.

“We need to take care of our kids in all aspects of life, “ Broadwater said. “I want these kids out of masks and I want kids to enjoy school. We’re not quite there because of the variant. We all just need to hold on and be sensible about where we are going with everything.”

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