COVID-19 Update |
|
Dear Students, Parents, Staff, and Friends:
Stanley-Boyd Area School’s 2020-2021 school year plan was approved and is now posted on our website. This plan has been developed over the past three months with input from staff, students, and parents. This plan was also developed as part of a joint effort between Chippewa County Public Schools and the Public Health Department.
The school year will begin on Thursday, August 20 and we will follow our approved calendar. Flexibility will be required throughout the year. How school is structured may change as health conditions change. An example of this is that in early July, our plan was to open in-person instruction for all of our students, five days a week. We have had to reevaluate that plan.
As of today, our plan is as follows:
-
PreK will have in-person ½ day class Monday through Thursday.
-
Grades K-5 will have in-person class Monday through Thursday with a virtual or home learning component on Friday.
-
Grades 6-12 will be grouped by family (A-K and L-Z) and will attend in-person instruction either Mon/Wed or Tues/Thur. All other days, the class will be virtual or home-based learning. Please keep in mind this is not what we did last spring. Delivery methods have changed and students will be expected to log into class when not in the building. We will also bring struggling students into the school on Fridays when necessary. You will be notified by the MS/HS office in regard to which day your students will attend.
Again, this plan can change as health conditions in our community dictate. We do plan to schedule some Q&A videos to help answer questions. If you have specific questions, they can be submitted here https://forms.gle/KuUZKVpwStkVPDLt9
As we approach the first day of school, the health and well-being of students and staff will guide our decisions on how to best provide quality instruction. Thank you for your patience. We appreciate your support as we work to provide the best possible education for our students in our current situation. Make it a great year and Go Orioles!
Sincerely,
Jeff Koenig
Superintendent
|
|
Dear Students, Parents, Staff, and Friends,
With recent guidelines issued by the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, I wanted to take a brief moment and explain how we are preparing for the 2020-2021 school year.
We are currently working with guidance from the Department of Public Instruction, the Wisconsin Department of Health, the Chippewa County Public Health Department, the Center for Disease Control, our legal counsel, our insurance providers, and in coordination with area school districts to help open school as safely as possible. We do this while keeping in mind all of the students’ needs. A presentation is planned for the July School Board meeting to outline the safety precautions we are planning before releasing them to the rest of the public. Please understand we have numerous teams of people working together to help create the best environment for our students and staff.
At this time, we are preparing to begin on August 20 with a variety of offerings to best fill every student’s educational needs. We will continue to offer a full spectrum of programming that extends from face-to-face instruction to a completely online format. If you are not comfortable sending your student to face-to-face instruction, please consider eSucceed Charter School. Students can attend eSucceed Charter School while remaining students in our school district.
Although we are planning to have traditional face-to-face instruction daily for all students, this can change rapidly as recommendations change and as we continue to monitor the safety and health of our community. To this end, we are preparing all of our classes to be able to transition to distance learning if it becomes necessary. Through this new approach to blended instruction and our own virtual learning program, Wings Academy, we have the flexibility to provide other learning avenues to students.
As we move forward, keep in mind our decisions are being based on the health of our community. Our ability to bring students back to our buildings is reliant on community health. Anything you can do to promote and follow behaviors that reduce the spread of illness will help us operate as close to normal as possible.
Thank you for your patience and understanding. I hope your families are healthy and well. Enjoy your summer and see you on August 20.
Sincerely,
Jeff Koenig
Superintendent
|
|
Dear Students, Parents, Staff, and Friends,
It is hard to believe we are already at our last week of school for the 2019-2020 school year. This year has presented challenges like we have not encountered before but I appreciate your strength and flexibility while navigating the constant changes.
With the end of the school year, we look forward to next year. Due to the prolonged closure, the school district was granted a waiver by the state to start before September 1. We have set the start date for August 20. Although we know the start date, the instruction that will be delivered is still being investigated. Please complete this brief survey to share your thoughts on possible scenarios. https://forms.gle/oNCgjrXqn9jMMdBYA
Please keep in mind all decisions will be made based on current information from Public Health and the Department of Public Instruction.
Foodservice will end meal delivery this Friday, June 5. Our kitchen will be closed next week but we will resume providing food for pickup on Wednesday, June 17. We will provide food at no cost to students for an entire week at a time. This food will be available for pickup Wednesdays at the High School from 10:30 AM to Noon. This program will run until the end of July. Families can sign up on the district website.
Our buildings and grounds are still closed for instruction and extra-curricular activities until June 30. Although we are closed, our buildings will be accessible June 8-12th from 8:00 AM until 5:00 PM to return materials and pick up student personal belongings. Building Principals should have specific plans for students on how to best enter and exit the buildings.
Summer school will run in July in a virtual format. More information will be sent out at a later time with specifics. If we are allowed to have student instruction in our buildings in July, we may add small group activities. At this time, we do not know what extra-curricular activities will look like in July or August. We will send out additional information when it becomes available.
Thank you for your patience and understanding. I hope your families are healthy and well. Enjoy your summer and see you on August 20.
Sincerely,
Jeff Koenig
Superintendent
|
|
Dear Students, Parents, Staff, and Friends,
Yesterday, Governor Evers announced the Safer at Home order will be extended until May 26. In this order, it was also announced schools will not reopen for the 2019-2020 school year.
Although we had all remained hopeful that we would return to school, we knew this was a possibility. This does not mean learning will stop. We will continue to provide online instruction and food to students until the end of this school year.
There are a number of topics we do not have answers to at this time. In the coming weeks, we will determine when the school year will end and how we can most safely allow families into the building to collect students’ belongings. We will also determine how to proceed with graduation as well as how or when summer school will begin.
Thank you to all of our families and staff as we navigate through this difficult situation.
I hope your families are healthy and well. Things may be structured and delivered differently, but we will all get through this together.
Sincerely,
Jeff Koenig
Superintendent
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Protecting Our Students and Community from Coronavirus
|
|
The safety of our students and staff is our top priority. To help prevent the spread of Coronavirus, or COVID-19, in Wisconsin and the United States that has occurred in other countries such as Italy and China, we are requesting that families contact their physician to ask to be tested for Coronavirus if a student has these symptoms:
- Fever
- Cough
- Shortness of breath
Please contact the school at 715-644-5534 to report the absence and symptoms. Learn more about the symptoms and treatment of Coronavirus at the Center for Disease Control (CDC) website: cdc.gov/coronavirus. Those at highest risk for Coronavirus complications are older adults and individuals with compromised immune systems or heart, lung and kidney disease.
We have no known cases of COVID-19 among students or staff in Stanley-Boyd Schools.
We continue to closely monitor the situation with the Chippewa County Health Department, as well as review updates from the Wisconsin Department of Health Services, Department of Public Instruction and the CDC. Here is the latest information on confirmed cases in Wisconsin - in Fond Du Lac, Pierce, Waukesha, and Dane counties. Another 37 WI residents are returning from a cruise where they may have been exposed and will be self-quarantined for 14 days. Nationally, there have been approximately 1,000 confirmed cases and 30 deaths (none in Wisconsin).
|
What You Can Do and Our Cleaning Measures
Stanley-Boyd Schools has a routine cleaning regimen in place to help reduce the spread of germs and communicable disease. In addition to our regular cleaning and disinfection, we are increasing the cleaning of high-touch areas and hard and soft surface items throughout the day. We will follow all guidelines of the CDC and our local and state health departments.
We all play a role in helping reduce the spread of communicable disease. We are asking our students, staff and families to practice regular preventive actions (see flyer in English, Spanish, Hmong and Mandarin Chinese) including:
- Wash your hands regularly, for 20 seconds, using soap and hot water. Make sure to wash your fingertips. This is especially important after using the restroom, coughing or sneezing into your hands, and before preparing or consuming food.
- Avoid coughing or sneezing into your hands or in the air. Always try to cough or sneeze into a tissue, and then throw the tissue away. If you don’t have a tissue, cough/sneeze into your arm.
- As much as you can, avoid touching your eyes, mouth and nose.
|
School Closure and Travel Restrictions
This is a rapidly evolving situation, with the World Health Organization declaring Coronavirus a pandemic, Gov. Tony Evers declaring it a public health emergency and the President issuing a month-long ban effective March 13 on all travel from Europe to the U.S.
We will continue to monitor the situation and be in contact with the health departments about whether to close any schools. As of March 13, the state of Wisconsin Department of Health Services (DHS) is not recommending school closures. Instead, DHS is asking schools and organizations to
- Cancel events with over 250 people
- Avoid non-essential domestic travel
- Avoid traveling to areas in the US with sustained community transmission of COVID-19 (currently Washington, New York, and California). See map
- Self-quarantine for 14 days upon return for anyone who travels to any U.S. states with confirmed community spread of COVID-19.
We appreciate your patience with this fluid situation and we will continue to update you as needed. Please rest assured that we will continue to put your students’ safety first.
|
|
