July 28, 2020
Bakersfield R-IV School District Re-Opening Plan
Dear Parents/Guardians,
As we approach the new school-year, we are facing an unprecedented challenge. However, it is in these challenges that new ideas and solutions are born. To this aim, I am providing you with our Re-Opening Plan for 2020-2021. This plan prioritizes the health and safety of our students and staff above all else. With that said, we do not have all the answers and this plan may change as conditions warrant. It is a fluid situation and we will communicate with you as we work to monitor and adjust to meet the needs of students.
We have been and continue to take precautions to make our campus and complete school environment safe for your child. We have taken recommendations from the CDC, local and state health departments, Missouri School Boards Association and many others. Of all the information consulted, the general consensus from a wide range of studies indicates kids are the least likely population to get Corona Virus and have the least amount of complications. While we cannot guarantee your child will not get COVID 19, we will certainly take every precaution we reasonably can.
Some of the precautions we have taken include:
Physical Plant/Classroom
•Spraying the entire campus, including buses, with an eco-friendly (EPA-approved) virus-killing solution using a biostatic process that lasts 90 days. (This will be repeated 5 times this year.)
•Adding numerous hand sanitizers and touchless dispensers
•Instructing students to wash hands upon entering the building and throughout the day
•Taking temperatures of every person who enters any building
•Providing water bottles and cups for touchless water filling stations
•Altering the meal schedules to enable social distancing
•Requiring staff and all non-students to certify their health/temperature before entering the buildings
•Requiring face shields and/or masks for staff anytime they are unable to socially distance
•Making masks/face coverings available for all students and strongly encouraging them to wear them
•Providing sneeze guards at tables for students and teachers
•Providing a separate place for sick students to wait while parents pick them up. If your child has a fever at school, you will be called to pick them up immediately.
•Providing the nurse with mobile carts to see students who may be sick to decrease exposure to other areas of buildings and campus
•Utilizing outdoor spaces for class as weather permits
•Students will continue to have outdoor recess as weather permits
Transportation
•Requiring siblings to sit together on buses
•Spacing as much as possible between family groups on the bus
• Assigned seats are required
Limiting Visitors to Campus
To further support our re-entry plan, we are minimizing the number of people in the buildings. If a parent or guardian needs to pick up a student, please call the office and the secretary will sign them out for you. You will not have to come in to get the student. Simply call when you get here, or ring the doorbell, and the secretary will be able to identify you via security camera and will release the student. If the secretary does not recognize you, an administrator will come out and verify your identity before releasing the student.
Parents or guardians are free to call or email teachers. We encourage phone or electronic communication between parents and teachers. Promoting physical distance in our buildings is a strategy to keep kids healthy, and it is never our intent to minimize communication between parents and teachers.
As of the date of this plan, we are not planning any indoor mass gatherings such as Title I night, Carnival, etc. Many extra-curricular activities may be on the calendar, but as the time for events approach we will monitor local health department recommendations and adjust as conditions allow. Many of these events may be altered to a different setting, such as outdoors, or limit the number of people who may attend such as parents of participants. Again, we don’t know what the future holds, and we will monitor and adjust to keep our kids safe.
Attendance Policy
Our attendance policy has been adjusted to support our re-opening plan. If your child is sick, we simply ask that you call us and let us know. Your child will be able to make up the work as provided by the guidelines in each student handbook. If your child is quarantined due to exposure to someone with COVID 19, we will provide a laptop for your child (if needed) to work from home. If your child HAS COVID 19, your child will be required to stay home until a physician or local health agency clears the student for return to school. Please contact your building administrator to notify him of a quarantine requirement and to check out a laptop.
Online Learning Plan Option Details
New for the 2020-2021 school year will be the option for distance learning. If you have concerns about sending your child to school, have someone at home who is high risk, or if your child is high risk, we have an option available to you. You may notify us of the request for distance learning and sign the agreement by August 18. We will provide a laptop for your child. We do not provide internet service at home, but our parking lot will be open for your child to login to our wifi with his/her username and password.
Teachers
All online programs are taught by certificated teachers and use Missouri Learning Standards. Students who participate in these options will be required to come to campus (by appointment) and take the EOC (End-of-Course) or MAP (Missouri Assessment Program exams.
Attendance
We are accountable to the state department of education for attendance in online programs. Daily seat time and/or progress is required. Although this program is online, we monitor progress at school. If progress is not made, or seat time completed, we will be visiting with you about the situation.
Middle and High School
The Apex program is available and is 100% online. Your child will not have our teachers, as originally planned. However, if your child has an IEP, one of our special education teachers will communicate with your child per the IEP team service requirements.
Elementary
100% online option is available and is provided in similar fashion as middle and high school.
The online program works great for some, but is not for everyone. The courses are rigorous, and will require parental support. An online elementary program will require a significant time investment by an adult in the home who can assist the student.
Seated Student Quarantine or Illness Distance Learning
If the student who comes to school is required to quarantine or gets sick, we will provide distance learning for the time they are required to be out of school via our own teachers. Teachers will record presentations and assignments in the online platform, and students will be able to access them from home. If a student does not have internet at home, the teachers will load their lessons and assignments on a flash drive and the flash drive will be given to the student. The student will be able to work at home and save information back to the flash drive. The parents can then return the flash drive to school.
What happens when a case of COVID 19 is identified in school?
First, we will work with local and state health department officials to perform contact tracing. We will work to identify where any potential exposure happened. If it is determined that the exposure was limited, those individuals would be required to quarantine per health department recommendations. We would provide distance learning from our staff for the period of quarantine. During the quarantine, a detailed cleaning would happen and the building or classroom would be sprayed again.
If more than one case is identified, we would work through the same process. Depending upon the exposure, we would collaborate with the health department to determine the best course of action. Quarantine for a class, a team or club could be warranted. If it is determined that several students who accessed different parts of a building were impacted, it is possible the building or district could shut down for a few days to do deep cleaning. The other students could return after cleaning while the impacted students remained home to complete the quarantine period.
Again, this is a fluid situation and conditions change daily. The health and safety of our students and staff are the priority. To this aim, we will continue to monitor the situation and communicate with local health officials to do the very best we can to keep everyone safe and healthy. We look forward to welcoming kids back this fall. With your help, we can get back to school and make up for lost academic time! We look forward to seeing you all August 25th!
Regards,
Dr. Amy Britt