A message from the Superintendent
Dear School Community,
Recently the school district conducted a 2020-2021 Return to School Parent Survey. Please find this survey’s results posted on our school website homepage. The district is planning on doing another survey as we get closer to the opening of school.
5 fast facts from the survey:
We received 509 surveys back through July 15. 85% response rate.
93% indicated their child will return to school for in-person learning.
If the district had to use the hybrid model, 91% indicated that their child will return for hybrid-learning.
The Virtual Academy received interest. The idea behind the Virtual Academy was to provide a possible option for parents who know they don’t want their child to return to school for in-person learning and may prefer it over distance learning. I want to clarify that Virtual Academy’s teacher would not be your school’s regular classroom person teacher.
For bussing, of those that indicated they are riders, 195 out of 251 (78%) said their child will still ride the bus.
School teaching and administrative staff have been meeting over this summer, working on planning logistics for the 2020-2021 school year. Results from this survey help with our planning. You may recall, schools are directed to develop plans for the 3 Learning Models for:
*In-person
*Hybrid-Learning (Reduce Occupancy)
*Distance Learning
Staff are working on logistics that can sync a daily schedule and classroom lessons and learning activities for those students who are in-person and those who are at home.
In studying comments from our survey, I want our community to know that local school administrators or school boards don’t get to independently decide what learning model we get to use. The governor identified he will make a determination the week of July 27th. The school noticed that in the parent survey there were many comments identifying parents don’t want their child to have to wear a mask at school. At this time, this is only a recommendation by MN Dept. of Health (MDH), not a requirement.
To be straightforward, by studying the parent comments found in our survey there are some opposing positions regarding how schools should function during this pandemic. Naturally, when that occurs there will be those who might feel like they aren’t getting what they want. The school district is listening to our parents. It is important that we are transparent that it is apparent that a “magic wand” solution to the different ideas parents have on how school should function does not seem to exist.
The Springfield School District has a 14-year-old goal that providing a safe and caring learning environment for our school community is a top priority. “Learning for All” is the school district mission. In the best interest of education, the school district efforts are working on maximizing as much “in-person” instruction allowable and simultaneously providing effective learning to those families who prefer distance learning. It is clear that 93% of our families want “in-person” learning. Furthermore, the national pediatricians have also come out with a strong statement advocating that schools bring kids back into our classrooms wherever and whenever they can do so safely. Great concern exists from parents, school and medical professionals, that student isolation has a negative impact on the social and emotional wellbeing of children. For the past three years, embedding classroom, homeroom, and school activities that foster the social and emotional needs of our students has become a standard in this school.
Be advised that your school is prepping the building, classrooms, offices, daily student schedules and routines, and have purchased the most modern cleaning equipment and will provide staff with personal protective equipment to ensure we can provide the healthiest school environment possible for students and staff to make “in-person” learning occur.
The school district expects to provide information and transparency over the weeks ahead updating you on the 2020-2021 school year plans.