Dear Shorewood Parents and Guardians,
At the beginning of the 2020-2021 school year, I wrote to you in anticipation of what an adventure the school year would be, and it has not disappointed. I am extremely proud of the effort put in by all of our teachers, support staff, administrators, school board members, parents, guardians and especially our students. Demonstrations of grace, humility and persistence have been on display daily as we all work together during these difficult times to meet the needs of all of our students and community. Thank you!
We learned many lessons during our first semester of the school year. A growing body of evidence indicates that a transition to in-person learning, along with an option for continued virtual learning, is appropriate as we head into the second semester. Reports such as “Schools and the Path to Zero; Strategies for Pandemic Resilience in the Face of High Community Spread'' published jointly by the Harvard Center for Ethics, Brown School of Public Health and New America on December 18 indicates that mitigation measures such as masking, hand hygeine, ventilation, physical distancing and quarantine protocols have allowed schools to be places that can avoid outbreaks and provide the social-emotional and academic needs many of our students are not getting in a virtual environment.
To that end, the Shorewood School Board decided last night to adopt the Medical Advisory Group’s new gating criteria recommendations below:
This presentation accompanied the recommendation to the School Board last night, and I hope you find it informative.
The earliest the transition to a hybrid model would occur is January 25th. We will begin monitoring the Shorewood community burden threshold as calculated by the North Shore Health Department on a weekly rolling basis beginning next week and continuing throughout the rest of the year. The weekly burden level will be published on the
COVID -19 Updates page on the District website.
If we get two consecutive weeks of a burden level at or below a particular threshold, we will begin our transition to the next learning model. This transition will take two weeks and the new learning model will begin the following school day. For example, our current burden rate is 539. If the burden rate the week of December 28th is 516 and the week of January 4th is 478, we would begin hybrid instruction for grades 4K - 6th grade on Monday, January 25th. In this example, Grades 7-12 would remain in the Virtual+ Model.
Details on the parent selection of in-person hybrid classes or virtual classes and how they will operate will be sent from the principals later today. Please read through the information provided and contact your principal if you have any questions or concerns.
In many ways, the weeks ahead will feel like the end of summer. District faculty members will be readying classrooms and attending in-service training and meetings as they do every year before school starts. Students and parents can begin preparing for school, too. Students should practice hand washing and other good hygiene habits, and students and parents/guardians should review school information - supply needs, rules for masks, new procedures for lunch, recess, and student drop off and pick up, and the District’s guidelines for COVID-19 testing and quarantine - together.
Thank you for your partnership in this challenging time, and as we move forward to meet the goals we share for our students.
With grace, humility, persistence and best wishes for a safe and healthy holiday season,
Bryan Davis
Shorewood Schools Superintendent