The following is the full plan issued by School District 205 regarding the opening of the 2020-21 school year
Thursday, July 30
Dear District 205 Families and staff,
Friday, July 31 at 5 p.m. is the deadline for families to complete their intent to opt for the Remote Learning Option, indicate preferences for students with IEPs, and interest in utilizing D205 busing services for the 2020-21 school year. D205 staff also have until the end of the business day on Friday to submit medical exemption notices.
If you have responded, you do not need to resubmit. If you change your mind from your initial response, please resubmit. Your most recent response will be time stamped, and that will be the response that is counted. In order to register your initial response or resubmit a response, the form is available in both English and Spanish. Please see a list of Open D205 information resources at the end of this letter that will be helpful in making your final decisions.
Based on the questions that we are receiving and the progress we are making in finalizing plans to launch the 2020-21 school year, the following updated/additional information is being shared with you this week:
Student, Teacher and Staff Safety
The health and safety of our students, teachers and staff is the first foundational principle of the Open D205 plan. To date, the District is projecting that it will invest approximately a half million dollars this school year to provide for the safety of all students and staff. Examples of measures being implemented or considered include but are not limited to:
• Developing a health/self-certification app for parents and staff to verify wellness daily.
• Increasing space in classrooms to support proper social distancing by storing extra classroom furniture and equipment in trailers.
• Creating hybrid schedules to support social distancing.
• Establishing district-wide criteria to change to remote learning if in-person or hybrid conditions are deemed unsafe
• Revising building operations to support social distancing and prevent transmission, including prohibiting the usage of lockers, signage, adjusting traffic patterns, changing room assignments, modifying pick-up and drop-off procedures, hosting virtual orientation and community events, changing out tables for desks and reconfiguring classrooms. See sample classroom configurations as drafted by Wight & Co., the architects for D205.
• Supporting medical exemptions for employees who are in a high-risk category
• Intensifying cleaning protocols to follow prescribed guidelines (e.g., lunch rooms cleaned in between shifts, wiping down classrooms any time new groups use a room, intense daily disinfecting of public areas as well as routine and frequent cleaning/disinfecting of high touch areas with the assistance of local disinfecting services, etc.).
• Establishing isolation rooms if people begin to feel ill, quarantine procedures for students and employees, who may feel ill or are awaiting test results
• Purchasing district-provided masks for employees and students
• Distributing sanitizer and disinfectant wipes in all classrooms
• Using tents to extend the cafeteria/eating area to expand the social distancing space to include outdoor lunch opportunities when weather permits.
• Hiring additional lunch supervisors
• Allowing elementary specials to be held in classrooms and other measures to prevent co-mingling of groups.
All of this is necessary to keep your school clean.
Health/Self-Certification
The health and wellness of our students, teachers and staff depends on a daily symptom assessment and verification before leaving home. A remote app has been developed for families to complete the health/self-certification process. Information on specific school-based procedures will be included in parent handbooks. In general, students will be assigned specific doors for entry and self-certification will be verified. Students who have not completed the process will be directed to a second location for an active temperature check by the school nurse or another school employee before they will be allowed to enter the building.
We have received many questions about communication in the event of a COVID-19 exposure or positive case. Per CDC guidelines, D205 will coordinate with local health officials to communicate possible and confirmed COVID-19 exposures and cases. Any communication will adhere to the following measures:
• Avoid potential stigma and discrimination.
• Maintain confidentiality of the student or staff member as required by the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act.
Face Coverings
Face coverings/face masks provide a simple barrier that has been proven to greatly reduce the spread of COVID-19. The use and wearing of masks and face coverings by all persons in the school building will be strictly enforced. Students and staff with disabilities who are unable to wear a face covering may be provided reasonable accommodations per the Americans with Disabilities Act and other applicable law.
The Open D205 plan speaks to face masks on pages 5 and 6 if you would like more information.
Remote Learning
Based on recent guidance from the ISBE, families requesting Remote Learning must be offered the option to do so. Therefore, families who initially select in-person or hybrid instruction will be able to change to remote learning at any time. However, families who elect for remote instruction will not be able to change to in-person instruction until January 2021.
To date, approximately 85% of our parents would like to see in-person or hybrid learning environments for their children. However, this will only be possible if there are enough teachers willing to report to work. A number of teachers have or intend to participate in site level planning to implement the Open D205 plan. However, to date, after several attempts by the administration to initiate a conversation about how to safely open schools and plan for optimal student learning, union leadership has not been willing to come to the table to reach a mutual agreement about how to best achieve this goal.
The District will continue to work through the logistics of providing a safe environment for students, teachers, and staff and supporting grade level schedules. It is possible that some adjustments to the original plan will be required when this information is available. For example, based on class sizes, the elementary schools may need to move to a hybrid schedule to ensure proper social distancing in grades K-5.
Teachers will be offered the opportunity to participate in Remote Learning professional development sessions this summer and Professional Learning Days on August 19-21 are dedicated exclusively to Remote Learning, including working with Zoom as a distance learning tool to increase synchronous instruction. District administration will provide a full report on Remote Learning, summer professional learning, and the professional learning plan for the 2020-21 school year at the August 11, 2020 D205 Board of Education meeting.
All-Day Kindergarten
Currently, in-person instruction five days/week is an option for students in grades EC-5. Remote Learning for kindergarten students will be consistent with the all-day curriculum. Families who were accepted in the all-day kindergarten program and wish to change to the half-day program may do so but they will lose their $270 deposit. The student will also have to remain at the school that they are currently assigned for this year of kindergarten, and busing will not be provided. The full-day program will be implemented in both the in-person and remote model. The full-day remote program for children will be the equivalent of five hours of learning and instruction daily. The half-day remote program will be the equivalent of 2.5 hours of learning and instruction. For more information about what the students will experience as a part of this program, visit remote all-day program.
Lunch
The District will continue to provide meal service to students. The meal service program will be a combination of in-school serving and a “grab & go” program similar to the one implemented in spring of 2020. However, due to safety considerations, students will not be able to leave campus during lunch. The D205 Facilities Department is working to extend and maximize the social distancing spaces needed during lunch/meal service. Tents have been ordered for elementary schools to allow for as many students as possible to eat lunch outdoors when weather permits.
We also are committed to hiring additional lunch supervisors to ensure proper supervision and cleaning. If you or anybody you know is interested in serving in this capacity and helping ensure that in-person and hybrid instruction is possible, please apply or encourage others to do so.
Fall Sports
The Board of Directors met today and an announcement on fall sports was planned for this afternoon. Prior to its scheduled press conference, Governor Pritzker announced his guidelines for youth sports. Recently, the IESA, an organization for elementary sports participation, announced that its fall sports series’ have been canceled. Though D205 is not officially a member of the IESA, it is following its position that middle school sports are canceled for the fall.
As it currently stands, D205 will follow the Governor’s guidelines for participation, provided that York High School is in session for hybrid instruction. If it is deemed unsafe for hybrid learning that includes appropriate social distancing guidelines, then the District will correspondingly deem it unsafe for non-virtual extracurricular participation.
An official District statement on high school participation will follow, but the District is bound by the parameters of the Governor’s position. The latest restrictions are available on the website.
Planning Ahead
Thank you for completing the Remote Learning Opt-In and Busing selection Form for the 2020-21 school year by the deadline this Friday, July 31 at 5 p.m. We understand the importance of this choice. It is very personal for each family and unique for each child. As the results from families and staff are processed, District leadership will be able to determine any staffing shortfalls for the upcoming school year. Coupled with DuPage County health data, a recommendation will be made to the D205 Board of Education on whether it is safe and possible to staff appropriately in order to open as planned for in-person and hybrid instruction on August 24. As charged by Governor Pritzker, we will do our best to ensure in-person learning for the start of the school year, while we balance the learning and safety needs of students, teachers and staff.
Looking forward, we also continue to ask our community to make a collective effort to comply with CDC guidelines on social distancing, masks, and hand washing, in particular. Please do your part and stay safe.
Sincerely,
Dr. David Moyer
Superintendent
Community Unit School District 205
