Liam HalawithMaroon Echoes Editor-in-Chief Editor’s Note: The governor’s order does not mean that school is out for the summer! Voluntary learning opportunities are still available until May 29th! Governor Reynolds Cancels Schools; Gives Guidance On Friday, April 14th, Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds announced that all schools in Iowa would close for the remainder of the 2019-2020 school year. “While I would like nothing more than to open up our schools and classrooms in May, we have to prioritize the health and safety of Iowans,” said Gov. Reynolds. “With our students at home, we must rely on continuous learning plans that are in place and prepare school districts for ‘Return to Learn’ in the fall." The state has waived all educational time requirements for schools that provide continuous learning opportunities. This includes voluntary, required and a mixture of both options. The state also said that schools need to file a “Return to Learn Plan” with the Department of Education by July 1st. This directive requires that districts show how they plan to bridge the gap in learning due to the extended closure. The measures also forgave mandatory starting dates that required schools to start no earlier than August 23rd. This means school districts have fewer limitations on how they structure their 2020-2021 school year. The governor explained that this will allow some schools to start early and begin making up for the lost learning time. The Iowa Department of Education also canceled the spring sports season for the 2019-2020 school year and announced they will release more information about summer sports by June 1st. Local Response/ Impact to the Closure Notice Iowa Department of Education Director, Dr. Ann Lebo now recommends that schools begin looking to develop a distance learning plan for the future. This comes as many scientists and medical professionals believe that the Convid-19 virus could reoccur next year and continue to emerge or mutate much like the flu. MPCSD has already begun looking at their distance learning readiness, and as of now, feel that they’re less than ready to undertake required online learning. As pointed out by Superintendent John Hinrkisn at a recent school board meeting, the district has many obstacles to overcome before they are able to require distance learning. The biggest one seems to be student access to reliable broadband internet.Survey results sent out by the district show that anywhere between 20-30% of students do not have access to high-speed internet at home. Another obstacle is that to make required online learning possible you would have to be able to take attendance and have 6 and a half hours of work for students per day. MPCSD board members suggested 1:1 devices for all grades K-12 instead of the current 3-12. As a corollary, that number of devices may overwhelm the district’s current IT staff. In addition, the district’s infrastructure, training, and curriculum still needs to be adapted to fully support required online learning. There are also questions of equity and special education services when it comes to requiring learning from the students at a distance. In fact, after submitting their plans to the state, 87% of school districts in Iowa aren’t prepared for required online learning. With only 6 school districts in the state that are able to require online learning for grades K-12. Ultimately, MPCSD is on the side of the majority with voluntary online learning. What about Prom, Graduation, Sports? With the governor's announcement on Friday, the 2019-2020 spring sports season is officially closed. This means that activities such as track, soccer, rennis, and golf are no longer taking place this school year. The Iowa Department of Education is set to release more information by June 1st on how summer sports will be handled. The season was set to begin on May 4th and now will be moved back to June 1st depending on what guidance is released. High school principal Todd Lichety previously announced that the 2020 prom dance will take place on Saturday, July 11th in the Airport Winery because it is an air-conditioned area. The festivities will take place as normal if the social distancing guidelines are relaxed by then. Mr. Lichety has discussed with the school board possible ideas for a graduation ceremony for the class of 2020. There have been many ideas brought to the attention of the administration, although Mr. Lichety says that he will narrow down the possibilities into 3 solid plans and send the options through a survey to all seniors and give them one vote for the options. Stay tuned for more from us on how the school district is preparing to go online!
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November 2020
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