August 3, 2020 | Plan Update -- Remote for All in the Fall

August 3, 2020 | Plan Update -- Remote for all in the Fall

Thank you again for your patience while our team works to provide the best opportunities for a return to learning this fall for the children, families and staff of Lorain City Schools. Please click on any of the links in this message to learn more about our process, progress, and updates along the way.

For the last six weeks we’ve been engaged in a 14-Step Process for developing our plans for a return to school. Our process has been informed by staff and family survey feedback, as well as guidance from the CDC, ODH, ODE, LCPHD and other local health experts.

We presented an update on our process, including the learning options being considered at the July 30th joint meeting of the Lorain Board of Education and Academic Distress Commission. Our plan aligned learning options to Ohio’s color-coded Public Health Advisory System, with all middle school and high school classes being taught remotely for all levels of public emergency, elementary classes being taught remotely for Red Level 3 and Purple Level 4 emergencies, and elementary parent choice for either in-person or remote learning at Yellow Level 1 and Orange Level 2 emergencies.

And then, just as we readied ourselves Friday morning to begin Step 10, the First Vetting of the Plan, new research was released which contradicted what we thought we knew about COVID-19 and how it is contracted and transmitted by children ages 10 and younger.

Up until last Friday, it was widely believed that young children did not contract nor transmit COVID-19 at high levels, making the possibility of in-person learning for our elementary students feasible for Level 1 and Level 2 advisories.

Then this article was released in the New York Times, contradicting those beliefs, sharing new research that young children may in fact carry the coronavirus at high levels.

At the same time, the CDC released this startling article about coronavirus transmission and infection among attendees of an overnight camp in Georgia demonstrating that children of all ages are susceptible to the virus and, contrary to early reports, might play an important role in transmission. Further, multiple COVID safety measures adopted by the camp were not sufficient to prevent an outbreak of substantial community transmission.

To ensure full transparency in our process, we moved forward with the vetting of the first draft of our plan by a randomized selection of parents, staff and administrators. That feedback, combined with the new research available regarding the virus and young children, has informed the decision to start school fully remote in the fall.

Here’s what we can share after a full day of extended deliberation:

All school activities are on hold as of today. There will be NO IN-PERSON ATHLETICS OR BAND PRACTICE starting tomorrow, August 4th, until further notice.
The first day of remote learning for all students is Tuesday, September 8th.
All classes for all students will be held remotely for the first quarter, from Tuesday, September 8th - Friday, October 16th.
A plan for student computer distribution and internet/wifi connection will be communicated as soon as possible.
After the first quarter, if any changes to the learning plan are able to be made — meaning, if any classes will be held in-person — the district will notify staff and families at least one month prior to those changes going into effect.

In the upcoming days and weeks we will be releasing the logistics of our remote learning plan. You can expect remote learning to look much changed from the @HomeLearning plan used in the spring, as our staff and teachers engage in extended professional learning and collaboration to transform the way we work with each other, our students, and our families.

This may not be the return to school many of us anticipated, but we’re pretty excited about what comes next. Yes, we’ll have a lot of learning to do together, but turns out, that’s something we know a little something about. We’re just glad we get to do it with some pretty amazing people, right here in the Lorain City Schools.

Stay tuned.

Jeff