Bottom Line Summary:
- WCPSS Staff request to move to Plan B Transition. Starting Sept 8, Pre K and Special Education students will move into the building. Other students in Plan B will be transitioned as is practical. This might be the cohorts originally announced. This might focus on getting younger students (K, 1) or students in transition grades (K, 6, 9) back first. The decision to move back to in-person instruction will depend on health trends, whether the technology has been distributed, whether the learning content management system is set up, whether teachers have time to prepare.
- This transition period will allow the county to continue to create new health protocols, staff would have an opportunity to practice those protocols, resources (such as PPE and technology) can be obtained and distributed.
- First two weeks of school for ALL students will be remote. It will mainly focus on orientation. Teachers can also use these two weeks for planning.
- Another enrollment period for Virtual Academy will be next week. Parents in Plan B can sign up to enroll. Parents who signed up for Virtual Academy can change their plans -- either by enrolling for only the fall or the entire semester. If parents want to unenroll from VA, they should contact the school.
Since the initial decision on July 2 (when the county announced Plan B):
- A new set of guidelines has been released from the Dept of Health and Human Services. (This was realized next week.)
- 6,000 bus routes have been redrawn.
- Purchase of PPE continues.
- Review of staff assignments and finalizing new protocols
- The amount of competing and conflicting input has intensified.
- All students will begin in remote instruction. The first two weeks will focus on orientation, distribution of supplies etc.
- Both Plan B and Virtual Academy will use standard aligned instruction, same curriculum, same learning platform. The same educational standards and guidelines will be used for both Plan B and Virtual Academy. Both student groups will have similar online instruction & other assigned daily learning opportunities.
- Starting Sept 8, Pre K and Special Ed students will return to the building. Other students will gradually be added back as soon as practical. Because of the high enrollment numbers for Virtual Academy, we might be able to do this more aggressively.
- You do not have to do anything if you want your child to be in Plan B. As conditions change and the county makes those announcements, your child will automatically move into Plan A, Plan B, and Plan C. If you are looking for consistency between now and Dec, Virtual Academy is available.
- Not yet decided whether students will be required to do to the school the first two weeks to meet their teacher.
- WCPSS staff and teachers need time to practice and learn new protocols being written to meet Dept of Health and Human Service guidelines.
Changes Based on Feedback from Spring Remote Learning
- Expectations will be more clearly defined, such as everyone will have a set required of hours of online instruction per day. This shouldn't vary between schools.
- Scheduling is currently being worked on and will be communicated to parents so parents can plan for child care.
- Students will be able to complete work in a time schedule that works for their family.
- Both Plan B and Virtual Academy will use PowerSchool.
- The county will have more support for parents and students with technology (getting started guides, Help Desk, guidelines for online safety), so more focus can be on the curriculum and less with dealing with technology. The county will have 5 distribution sites for technology.
- County is working on providing child care for staff. The current assumption is that the child care for staff will be in the school building.
Food Service:
- Currently Food Service is under the Summer Program and is funded with federal dollars. This money expires Aug 31, so the county needs to start transitioning to school year plans.