Good Afternoon Families,
In this season of gratitude, I wish to thank you for your patience and flexibility as we continue to do our best to keep everyone as safe as possible and continually adjust to this pandemic. We regret that we have already had to make many disruptive decisions and we know this isn’t over yet. Our goal is to try to stay ahead of the changes and to give you as much notice as possible when the situation warrants a change.
Last night, the Board of Education approved the plan to adjust our hybrid model during the week of Thanksgiving and the week after. This adjustment converts the scheduled school days during these weeks into remote learning days for all students.
· Monday, November 23 is now a teacher workday for planning purposes and does not include remote learning for students.
· On Tuesday, November 24, remote learning will take place and teachers will be available remotely from 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.
· There will be full remote learning the week of November 30-December 4. November 30 will be a typical remote Monday. December 1-4, teachers in grades 5-12 will provide the schedule for classes to meet virtually following a specific bell schedule. Elementary school teachers will link lessons and post work to Schoology and offer students/families an optional synchronous experience daily.
· We will return to our original hybrid schedule – the schedule with which the school year began – for the remainder of this semester, beginning Monday, December 7, 2020.
· When students return from full remote on Tuesday, December 8, Perrysburg Junior High School will return to the alternating days hybrid plan (2 days a week in-person) to finish the semester. A decision on whether to return PJHS students to 4-days a week at the start of the second semester will take place at the December 14 Board of Education meeting.
· The plan that would have returned all Perrysburg High School students to 4-days a week on January 19, 2020 has been paused. Discussion of next steps will take place at the January Board of Education meeting, date TBD.
As I shared last week, these changes are being made in anticipation of an uptick of COVID-19 cases due to the holiday. Despite the warnings from health officials and Governor DeWine, groups of people will be gathering over the extended Thanksgiving weekend. Some of those gatherings will be indoors and some people will not be social distancing or wearing masks. There is concern that, as a result of these celebrations, there will be more spread of the virus.
We know that most people with COVID-19 show symptoms within 3-7 days of the 14-day window after being infected. If there are just 10% more employees quarantined than what we have experienced in the last two weeks, for example, we would not be able to operate some or all schools as we do not have enough substitutes to replace them. After Thanksgiving and the long weekend, it is not unreasonable to anticipate that we will have more employees and students positive for COVID-19 than we have seen in the last two weeks. By planning this brief shift to remote learning, we are able to better prepare instructionally so that the quality of education provided to students during this time will be better than if we had random, unplanned shutdown periods, which at this time appears that it would be likely.
We encourage everyone to continue practicing the recommended steps to help us fight this pandemic: mask wearing, hand washing and social distancing – especially if you plan to spend time with anyone who does not live in your household.
In this unique Thanksgiving season, we are grateful for the sacrifices families, students and employees are making every minute to make it safer for others and to continue educating our students. We will continue to do our best to give you as much notice as possible when changes must take place. Thank you again for your patience, support and partnership.
Please visit this link to view the many student services and supports available to families, from food assistance to mental health resources:
Peace,
Tom H.
Thomas L. Hosler
Superintendent
Perrysburg Schools
419-874-9131 ext. 2103