Public Relations
June 18, 2020
Re: School Reopening Update
Dear Parents,
I want to thank you for the incredible response we had on our survey regarding online teaching. It gave us excellent feedback to guide future efforts. We wish to express our sincere appreciation to parents for their patience and support during the last three months of school. We realize this was not easy, especially in homes where parents were working full time and had multiple children in multiple grades and schools. I also want to publicly thank our teachers and staff for their efforts to make the best of a challenging learning situation. I know the teachers are spending time planning and making preparations this summer to ensure that when students come back to school, it will be in a safe and healthy environment.
I have had inquiries regarding next year’s plans for opening schools. While the District has been busy planning and making preparations, we have delayed releasing a final plan because we want to be responsive to the most recent COVID data trends. Currently, we are planning to open schools with regular schedules. This opening will require us to have in place safety and health protocols to minimize the risk of COVID spread. We are also preparing two other contingency plans which will be implemented (if necessary) based on local COVID data.
The first contingency plan is to move to an A/B every other day schedule (only if necessary). In this plan, students would be face to face with the teacher on one day and then work online the next day. The second contingency plan (only if the local situation dictates) will be to have school totally online. We recognize that there are many limitations and problems with this delivery system. However, if it is necessary to move this direction for the safety of our students and employees, we may have to implement this plan.
To be better prepared for all scenarios, we have identified two “Teacher Trainer Teams.” One teacher team will focus on collecting information on the best strategies and tools for teaching online. They are to take the input and things that we learned from our first experience - find out what worked and what didn’t. The second teacher team will be identifying safety/health
protocols that will be implemented in our schools. These two teacher trainer teams will be training all other teachers and staff in these two areas before returning to school. By doing this, we will see better consistency from teacher to teacher and school to school.
Parents and students can expect to see these safety/health protocols sent out the first part of August. This will give parents and students the opportunity to start to understand and practice these protocols.
Sincerely,
Rich Moore
Superintendent
Oneida School District #351
Re: School Reopening Update
Dear Parents,
I want to thank you for the incredible response we had on our survey regarding online teaching. It gave us excellent feedback to guide future efforts. We wish to express our sincere appreciation to parents for their patience and support during the last three months of school. We realize this was not easy, especially in homes where parents were working full time and had multiple children in multiple grades and schools. I also want to publicly thank our teachers and staff for their efforts to make the best of a challenging learning situation. I know the teachers are spending time planning and making preparations this summer to ensure that when students come back to school, it will be in a safe and healthy environment.
I have had inquiries regarding next year’s plans for opening schools. While the District has been busy planning and making preparations, we have delayed releasing a final plan because we want to be responsive to the most recent COVID data trends. Currently, we are planning to open schools with regular schedules. This opening will require us to have in place safety and health protocols to minimize the risk of COVID spread. We are also preparing two other contingency plans which will be implemented (if necessary) based on local COVID data.
The first contingency plan is to move to an A/B every other day schedule (only if necessary). In this plan, students would be face to face with the teacher on one day and then work online the next day. The second contingency plan (only if the local situation dictates) will be to have school totally online. We recognize that there are many limitations and problems with this delivery system. However, if it is necessary to move this direction for the safety of our students and employees, we may have to implement this plan.
To be better prepared for all scenarios, we have identified two “Teacher Trainer Teams.” One teacher team will focus on collecting information on the best strategies and tools for teaching online. They are to take the input and things that we learned from our first experience - find out what worked and what didn’t. The second teacher team will be identifying safety/health
protocols that will be implemented in our schools. These two teacher trainer teams will be training all other teachers and staff in these two areas before returning to school. By doing this, we will see better consistency from teacher to teacher and school to school.
Parents and students can expect to see these safety/health protocols sent out the first part of August. This will give parents and students the opportunity to start to understand and practice these protocols.
Sincerely,
Rich Moore
Superintendent
Oneida School District #351