Garrett Neese/Daily Mining Gazette The Houghton-Portage Township Schools Board holds a meeting Monday night, which was moved to the high school library for greater social distancing. From left are Superintendent Doreen Kramer, Vice President Amanda Massaway, Trustee Buck Foltz, Treasurer Rob Fay and acting Secretary Colette Patchin.

HOUGHTON — Houghton-Portage Township Schools Superintendent Doreen Kramer gave an update on what district operations look like during the school shutdown to minimize the chance of COVID-19 exposure.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer announced Thursday night K-12 schools would be closed until April 6. The three-week period includes the week Houghton already scheduled for spring break.

The district will provide free breakfast and lunches for families who have preordered meals. Parents and guardians will be able to pick up breakfasts and lunches for the children at the bus lane entrance of Houghton Elementary School from 11 a.m.-1 a.m. Wednesday, and continuing March 25 and April 1.

To preorder meals, email sturnquist@houghton.k12.mi.us or call (906) 369-0449. Provide name, contact number, the total number of children and the requested number of daily meals.

The district has also been working on ways to ensure hourly support staff are compensated during the closure. Some support staff are being called to assist with meals at the elementary school.

“We’re taking a look at this week and after spring break,” Kramer said. “It’s very important to us. We have a lot of staff working here that are counting on employment. We want to make sure we can help support our families here.”

Because Friday’s school had been canceled due to snow day, students were allowed to come to school Monday to retrieve items they needed. Teachers are also being allowed in briefly, but are discouraged from hanging out.

“Our offices are going to be open, but we don’t want people coming in and out,” Kramer said. “We want people to take care of themselves first.”

The elementary school playground will not be locked to the public, but “we’re hoping there’s not a bunch of kids out there at once,” Kramer said.

Extra cleaning will be done during the closure, ramping up during the week before school is scheduled to resume on April 6.

There has been no word yet on whether the district will have to make up the two weeks at the end of the year, Kramer said.

Houghton is not preparing lesson plans for students, but principals sent information to parents on educational resources they can use until school resumes, including Khan Academy and grade-appropriate resources from Central Michigan University.

Students in Math 7 through Algebra 2 will have access to their Pearson Realize accounts, giving them access to their textbook and sample problems. High school students will get free access to Michigan Virtual course content and review for Advanced Placement courses. Word on how AP testing may affected could come later this week, Middle School Principal Julie Filpus and High School Principal Cole Klein said in a joint email.

Some teachers have also reached out to students to provide resources.

“Obviously education of our students is really important, but I think we have our take our cues from the state and see what we’re going to do there,” Kramer said. “We’re not set up to be online at this time. That would be pretty hard to rush and put together, and not all of our students have internet or computers.”

The district is receiving direction from the Western Upper Peninsula Health Department and the governor’s office.

“It was our hope that we could stay open, so we had a place here for students to be, so parents could be working, and to help kids stay focused,” she said. “We thought we could stay open until spring break, but that didn’t happen, so we’re dealing with what we got.”

In the only action item of the brief meeting, the board also hired Micah Stipech and Anders Hill as varsity football coaches.

To enhance social distancing, the board moved its Monday meeting from the conference room to the library, normally used only for meetings with large crowds. Kleenex and hand sanitizer were prominently placed near the agendas.