COLDWATER, MI (WTVB) – Three parents of Coldwater High School athletes expressed their frustrations about various COVID-19 related issues during the public comment portion of Monday night’s Coldwater School Board meeting.
Superintendent Terry Ann Whelan announced hours before the meeting that due to the high rate of positive COVID-19 cases in Branch County, the district will go to 100 percent virtual instruction for all students from next Monday up to the winter break with hopes of returning to face-to-face learning on January 4.
All high school sports in the State of Michigan have been paused until December 8 by the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services in an effort to stop the recent COVID-19 surge. It’s not clear yet if athletics will resume the following day.
Aaron Downs has sons who play basketball and he felt inactivity would do more harm than good. He said, “I have a concern we are shutting off these kids that have a lot of things going on in their lives and they need to play sports to be healthy.”
Coldwater’s home football game with Parma Western along with Senior Night activities were cancelled on October 23 due to COVID-19 issues in the Parma school district. Both teams managed to play rescheduled games the next day. That angered Chris Rodesiler who blasted Whelan and other school officials for denying seniors their chance to be recognized. Rodesiler told Whelan, “shame on you for that, shame on your team for that”. Board President Ed Lake then cut Rodesiler off when his time limit expired.
Whelan could not give a definitive answer as to the resumption of sports and practices. She said, “we will be following MIOSHA guidelines which are based on CDC recommendations. At this point, we don’t really know.”
In other business during an otherwise routine meeting, the board accepted the retirement of long time educator Dawn Supianowski after 34 years of service. Her retirement is effective on December 31.
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