Dear
Rossford Schools Families,
We
appreciate your patience and understanding as we work through this difficult
time in our nation together. We realized shortly into our July 22 Board of
Education virtual meeting that there was an attendance cap, and not everyone
who wanted to attend could. Here is a link to a video which shows the board
discussion starting shortly into the meeting: https://youtu.be/VQA2FgnsnPg. The presentation to the board is also attached here.
Rossford
Schools students will return to classrooms beginning August 20th (exact
dates depend on the grade). Students will be returning to school with a hybrid
model. Mondays will be remote learning only days, with Tuesdays and Thursdays
half of the school population in class with the other half remote learning.
Those roles will be flipped on Wednesdays and Fridays. Therefore each student
will have three remote learning days and two in-class days each week. The
return to class will be done with safety procedures and social distancing to
account for limiting the spread of the COVID-19 Virus. These general practices
are agreed to by Lucas and Wood County Health Departments.
To make the hybrid model work, students will be placed into a cohort. Students assigned to “Cohort 1” will attend classes on-campus on Tuesdays and Thursdays, while students in “Cohort 2” will attend classes on-campus on Wednesdays and Fridays. Every effort is being made by district staff to assign students to cohorts by family/household. Cohort assignments will be communicated to families soon.
Families may elect to enroll their child in Rossford’s virtual learning program, which will utilize an online curriculum through NOVA (https://www.abc-nova.org/parentsstudents.aspx). More
than 50 schools and districts in Northwest Ohio utilize NOVA, which provides
high-quality virtual curricula for students. Parents/guardians who choose to
pursue this option for their student(s) will need to indicate their intent to
do so by filling out an online form through our website by August 7, 2020.
There will be a virtual informational meeting on NOVA on August 4, 2020. NOVA
will replace in-person learning, will be solely online, and completely
self-driven.
Students
who are returning will need to adapt to new protocols which will limit close
contact. Our staff, pursuant to guidelines from the Ohio Department of
Education, will be wearing masks and/or face shields. All students will be
required to wear masks, unless an exception is made for health reasons.
Staff
and families will need to work together to make sure our reopening, and the
rest of this school year, is done safely. In order to accomplish this, we ask
that families monitor temperatures daily and keep their children home whenever
they have a high temperature or other symptoms are present. Rossford staff will
be following the same procedures. A good-faith agreement on these practices
will be a part of back to school forms.
As
we have learned as a society, things can change rapidly with this pandemic. We
need parents to be prepared with childcare if we as a district have to go to a
fully-remote educational model. Again, the model we use may change throughout
the school year depending on the circumstances in our area.
Read
below for new procedures, developed in collaboration with the health
department, to help make our school year safe for our students and staff.
Rossford Junior-Senior High School
Students
will arrive at school and go directly to their first period class. Students
will not be permitted into school prior to 7:35 a.m. First period class starts
at 7:45 a.m. We will avoid congregating at lockers and in halls. Lunch seating
at the high school will be spread out throughout the cafeteria and concourse to
allow for social distancing. A new schedule will limit the number of class
changes. See the attached for more details: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1affmKNvkCVeb8dslegBdXSsvbrhywosj/view. To
minimize trips to lockers, students will be allowed to carry backpacks. Each
student will be assigned a Chromebook for his/her exclusive use, which may also
be taken home.
Rossford Elementary School
Our
art, physical education, STEM, library and music teachers will be visiting
homerooms to teach to reduce the number of transitions between classrooms and
the number of students sharing the same space. The specials schedule has also
been adjusted to minimize cross-over of students. Additional details are
available here: Elementary Scheduling.pdf. To
account for social distancing some classes will eat lunch in their own
classrooms while others will eat in the lunchroom. This arrangement will change
on a weekly basis. We will continue to hold recess, but with a modified
schedule and a rotation of activities. High-touch surfaces on the playground
will be routinely sanitized. Adjustments have also been made to student
drop-off and pick-up procedures. We will also strive to keep students socially
distanced during this process. Each student will be assigned a device for
his/her exclusive use (iPads for preschool, kindergarten and first grade;
Chromebooks for grades 2-5). These devices will be sent home with students in a
remote or hybrid setting.
Please see this attachment for more details on transportation, meetings, guests/visitors, cleaning, distancing and other plans as we return to school.
Thank
you again for working with us as we provide a safe education for our students.
Rossford
Schools