Frankfort Community Unit School District 168 Board issued the following announcement on Aug. 7.
The Faculty, staff, administration, and Board of Education of Frankfort CUSD #168 have been eagerly waiting for a return to school and the chance to join our students for in-person learning. We believe that we are most effective when we are working together in-person. Still, in these current times, we have been working on a two-track option for students to join us with a limited and blended in-person option or a complete Remote Learning option for those who requested it. Our main goal is to do what is best for our students – to keep them safe as they learn.
Unfortunately, in the past several days, we have seen and been informed of a rising amount of positive COVID-19 cases in our community and in our school family. As people have tested positive or have been exposed to someone who has – more and more people have been quarantined. The calculations that go into determining the right amount of spacing and the time people were exposed has been a challenge even when dealing with small groups. Our difficult task is to figure out how to do that with our over 1,600 students and almost 200 faculty and staff members.
After much internal discussion in the District between Board of Education members, administrators, and faculty and staff leaders, we have come to this point:
Frankfort CUSD #168 will begin the school year for students on Monday, August 24, 2020, with all instruction happening for all of our students through a full time Remote Learning method. We will go “Full Remote” from August 24 through at least Friday, September 11, at which time we will re-evaluate to determine if we can go back to the blended, in-person option. Our faculty and staff will be working from their classrooms at our schools each and every day that we have school to put together and conduct these remote learning sessions. Student work during Remote Learning will be graded and we will track attendance and engagement in learning.
Remote Learning this school year will not look like it did in the spring. We will be using more technology and we will work with all of our families to make sure they have access. Our teaching staff will be training and practicing to improve our technology and remote learning skills the week of August 17 to make this the best program that we can offer. Our Office of Special Education staff will be reaching out to our families to work through the various IEP issues that we are required to meet.
This is not an easy decision and we know it causes hardships. It is not the decision that we wanted to make. We want to see our kids in person. However, at this time, we think it is the safest path for our community. Again, we will re-evaluate at the September 11 mark and continue to evaluate during this entire school year.
In the coming days, we will have more information on how we will conduct our district-wide breakfast and lunch program, how we will get technology assistance to those who need it, how materials and textbooks may be distributed, how we will track learning, how extra-curricular and sports programs will be handled, and how we will eventually try to get back into in-person learning.
We thank you for your patience as we have been watching the changing dynamics in our community so that we didn’t have to change directions several times. We hope that all of you and your families remain safe and well as you interact with others. We will have another communication and a posting on Monday evening.
Again, our schedule now is:
˗ Monday, August 17 Teachers’ Institute Day (No Student Attendance)
˗ Tuesday, August 18 Remote Learning Planning Day #1 (No Student Attendance)
˗ Wednesday, August 19 Remote Learning Planning Day #2 (No Student Attendance)
˗ Thursday, August 20 Remote Learning Planning Day #3 (No Student Attendance)
˗ Friday, August 21 Remote Learning Planning Day #4 (No Student Attendance)
˗ Monday, August 24 First Day of Student Remote Instruction
Original source can be found here.
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