This is our 12th week of the 2020-2021 school year. It remains our goal to provide you with regular updates. Our team is developing a COVID-19 Dashboard with data updates in real-time and a location that brings pertinent information together into an easy to access place.
Please do not send children to a school with any sickness symptoms, cough, fever, etc. Please make sure you are completing the health screener with your child every school day. Sending children sick to school places our face-to-face instruction program at risk and creates inconvenience for you when we have to send your child home before the end of the school day.
At this time, we have conceded that it is unrealistic under current circumstances to plan for a regular five-day week of face-to-face instruction before the new year. Also, we added some additional remote days with Monday, November 23rd, and Tuesday, November 24th, as remote learning days. This will provide our students with a ten-day break from face-to-face instruction, allowing us to do additional deep cleaning, and to attempt some improved protocols for remote learning on Monday, November 23rd, and Tuesday, November 24th.
I do need everyone to dial in their expectations to the realities of 2020 and understand we are doing everything we possibly can on our end to provide the highest quality education, services, and school experience to everyone involved. There will be disruption to face-to-face instruction and specific services from time to time, so please plan to be inconvenienced at times.
We still remain cautiously optimistic that we can continue our positive trends. Still, we need everyone to do their part by doing daily health screeners, keeping sick children home, and following the 3 W's: wear a mask, wash your hands, and watch your distance.
We can currently report that we have had two students, and one staff member test positive for COVID-19 that generated close contact situations since my last update. It feels like it may only be a matter of time for us, but please know we will do everything we can to safely keep our face-to-face options available for our students and families.
This week we worked to consolidate a bus run to help reduce the need to disrupt services due to the lack of substitutes; however, we will still have situations that will require specific buses not to run. We also added a texting feature to our bus routing system that allows us to communicate to parents of students that utilize our transportation services.
We continue to follow our return to learn plan and guidance from the health department, the department of education, and other oversight that has been provided.
Please continue to encourage your child to utilize our free breakfast and lunch program for all; it makes your morning easier knowing that breakfast and lunch are already taken care of.
Please rest assured if there are any concerns specific to you or your children that either a building principal or myself will contact you directly.
If you should have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact me at 989.642.5282.
All the best,
Don Killingbeck, Supt.
