USD 235 Parents/Guardians:
With the confirmed positive test result for COVID-19 in Bourbon County I wanted to send out a letter with some additional information. At this time, we have no immediate plans to bring students back into our buildings in small group settings. We will be proceeding with planning our Continuous Learning Plan when we meet next week with our staff by focusing on 1) Online learning opportunities using video conferencing and 2) Packet learning. We will provide more details to our parents/guardians as we create our plan. We will not be ready to put our plan in place until Monday, March 30, at the earliest. The radio station in Fort Scott has asked both school districts in Bourbon County to be on their radio broadcast at 7:45 AM on Tuesday, March 24. I will be on that broadcast via the telephone.
We are still reviewing all of our options for continuing meals. The approved waiver from USDA allows us to serve meals to anyone from the age of 1-18. With the confirmed positive test in Bourbon County we will review our plan and make that plan/schedule available to the public as soon as possible. Our waiver does not allow us to serve meals during anytime we were scheduled to not have school. That is why we can’t serve meals this week during our scheduled Spring Break.
Our building principals will be attempt to create a schedule in the next 7-14 days that allows you the opportunity to come and pick up your child’s personal items at school. With the current guidelines of no more than 10 in any area and no one within 6 feet of each other this will be difficult. We thank you for your patience in these extraordinary times.
We still need the help of all parents/guardians in planning what our Continuous Learning Plan will look like in Uniontown USD 235. If you haven’t done so yet, please fill out the survey using the link below. We ask that all USD 235 Parents fill out the survey by noon on Tuesday, March 24. We will use the information collected in this survey to begin forming our plan. As of 3:30 PM on March 23, 2020, 224 people have filled out the survey representing 392 of our students. We still need to reach approximately 60 more students to have 100% of them represented.
Please continue to help us to spread the word asking all parents/guardian of students in Uniontown USD 235 to fill our Tech Survey. We have just over 450 students in our district and at this time we have received a survey from 392.
Our administration team along with our technology staff be meeting next work during Spring Break so that we may have information ready for our staff to use in forming the Uniontown Continuous Learning plan during the week of March 30 - April 3.
We appreciate your willingness to work together to make this the best experience possible for your child(ren).
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/NQKQZG6
I have put some new information below, but some of it is a repeat from yesterday (3/22).
Our thoughts to implement into the USD 235 Continuous Learning Plan:
- We will be focusing on essential learning and essential outcomes for students – “Less is More”.
- We will be emphasizing relationships in this new learning environment.
- Our decisions must support all populations of students.
- We will establish a consistent and agreed upon framework of expectations, communication models and practices that all stakeholders share.
- We will be using 1-2 platforms of learning for all students. We simply can’t have every person using their own platforms. This would be confusing for students and parents alike.
- The guidance we received has recommendations on time for students to spend learning each day. We will be using these recommendations. They are 30 minutes for Pre-K; 45 minutes for KG and 1st grade; 60 minutes for 2nd and 3rd grade; 90 minutes for 4th and 5th grade; and 30 minutes per teacher in 6th through 12th grade. (3 hours maximum in a day.) These will be maximum minutes and doesn’t mean that it will even be daily.
- Continuous Learning will not be hours of screen time for students and parents.
- We will not just be making copies of worksheets and sending them home. A) Online Learning and B) Packet Learning.
I want to again thank all of you who has sent us kind words and well-wishes to the Admin Team on our social media platforms as well as our Maintenance and Food Service Teams. We are all thankful to work in such a caring school district.
Be safe Eagles!
Thank you and God Bless,
Bret Howard, Superintendent Uniontown USD 235