First and foremost, I want to sincerely thank you for your patience, support, and understanding as our education team plans for the upcoming school year. It seems like each day we are given new or additional Information that will have an impact on how the school year will look. This has made it extremely difficult to develop a plan that covers all of our bases. Please know that the health and safety of our students and staff continues to be our top priority.
I know you have many questions about the upcoming school year: When will school start? What will a school day look like? What safety protocols will be implemented? These and many other questions are being considered by the team as we prepare.
In developing the plan, we are following the expertise of national, state, and local officials in order to protect our school community. We will also use the feedback we receive from students and parents once our surveys have returned.
This process has not been an easy task. We have discussed topics ranging from screening students for temperatures, transportation issues, extracurricular activities, and protocols for positive cases. I know we can't adequately address every possible scenario, but we are trying to develop the best plan for our district.
At this time, we plan on starting back to school on August 13. What school will look like is still being decided and will be subject to change based on the most recent information we have. Our goal is to have school look as close to normal as possible while protecting the health of students and staff. Once we have developed our plan it will be shared with the public, until then, we ask that you continue to have patience as we go through this process. Please do not believe every rumor you hear. An official statement will be released as soon as the plan is completed and anything else you hear will be speculation.
Face coverings have been the topic of much heated debate. The passion is intense on both sides. We would all like to revert back to February so this is not even a question. As we look at most experts' advice, we are seeing that masks help stop the spread. Wearing masks at school in a normal year is nobody’s first choice. This school year is far from normal. So, the questions we talk about are what is the harm of one choice versus the other. If masks are required, they may stop the spread of the virus. If they don’t then we all wore masks for nothing. If no masks are required and it turned out they were helpful, then some of our school community could have avoided being infected. Please keep in mind that teachers and students are both a part of our school community. I will always lean to the protective side for our school community.
This is brand new for everyone (students, parents, and staff) and difficult decisions are being made with ever-changing information. Please keep our students and staff in your thoughts and prayers as we navigate these times. unprecedented
Thank you again for your support.
Sincerely,
Mark Batt
Superintendent