July 10, 2020
Your ISD News & Updates
Release of the GELN COVID-19 Preparedness and Response Plan Template
On behalf of the public school districts and intermediate school districts of Michigan, the Michigan Association of Intermediate School Administrators Association and statewide partners are pleased to announce the release of the " COVID-19 Preparedness and Response Plan Template" .

How to use the document:
  • Once you've clicked the Google doc link, immediately click "make a copy"
  • After copying the most recent version of the document will read "revised 7:00 am, 7/10/2020"

Important components:
1) This Preparedness Plan Template addresses all Safety Requirements. Executive Order 2020-142 states that every school district and nonpublic school [in Michigan] must develop and adopt a COVID-19 Preparedness and Response Plan (“Preparedness Plan”) that is informed by the Michigan Return to School Roadmap from the COVID-19 Task Force on Education and Return to School Advisory Council (“Return to School Roadmap”). 

The Preparedness Plan Template, which closely follows EO 2020-142 , is designed to help schools develop their plan. This template was produced by members of the Michigan Association of Intermediate School Administrators (MAISA) General Education Leadership Network (GELN) in cooperation with and with endorsement from the Governor’s Office, the Michigan Department of Education and statewide education organizations.
 
It is being distributed throughout the state to aid in consistency of plan adoption by local and ISD boards of education. You are encouraged to use it. 
 
2) This added resource can help schools navigate the Return to School Roadmap. Also attached is tool to help schools with deeper planning around the Return to School Roadmap. Originally released on June 25, MAISA’s Continuity of Learning Return to School Guidance for districts is an annotated document that contains guidance, resources, and tools that can serve as a great enhancement for the Roadmap. 
 
Compiled/developed by the GELN Continuity of Learning Task Force, this work:
  • aligns with and addresses 6 of the 7 subparts of the Return to School Roadmap produced by Opportunity Labs, and the Michigan Safe Schools R2S Roadmap.
  • is rooted in the principles of equity and a whole-child approach to education. 
  • draws on numerous national and state education organizations and leverages the expertise of educators, districts, and LEAs across the state
  • was done in consultation with multiple state organizations, including The Governor’s Return to Learning Advisory Council, and the Michigan Department of Education (MDE).
 
The next installment of this work, to be released later in July, will support district and school leaders as they develop District Preparedness and COVID-19 Response Plans that prepare them for moving between the stages of the MI Safe Start Plan.
REMC SAVE Offering Discounted
PPE to ALL Michigan schools
*As of 8:30 am, July 10th, the REMC SAVE site is temporarily down due to an internet outage at Ingham ISD. The fix involves pole replacement, so it will take a good portion of the day to repair. If you are looking for a quick update on the site being back up, please email Taylor Hoag, at thoag@gomaisa.org .

Now all Michigan schools can order Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) at discounted prices in preparation for the 2020-2021 school year. REMC SAVE , a project of the REMC Association of Michigan , is now offering critical PPE and cleaning supplies through www.remcsave.org . All Michigan schools, including public, charter, parochial, and private schools are eligible to take advantage of these exclusive discounts. There are no order deadlines or quantity restrictions.

REMC SAVE has assembled a Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) collection designed to assist school staff in reducing the risk of infection as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. School administrators can select from gloves, hand sanitizer, masks and face shields, signage, dividers and thermal scanning equipment. In addition, REMC SAVE also offers a selection of cleaning supplies including paper towels, sanitizers, sinks, and wipes.

REMC SAVE provides large volume contracts for educational resources, including furniture, school and office supplies, software and digital services, and technology. The program saves schools time and money by providing a simple, seamless bid process that meets Michigan Revised School Code requirements. The small administrative fee charged to vendors is used to provide free classroom resources and professional learning for educators. Since 1990, Michigan schools have saved over $1 billion using REMC SAVE, resulting in additional learning opportunities to students.
MISEN - Waived Internet Access Fees for 2019/20 - 2020/21
We are pleased to announce that the MISEN Board approved the SEN Advisory recommendation that due to overall K-12 budget uncertainty as a result of the COVID-19 impact in Michigan, we are waiving all SEN Internet Access (IA) charges statewide for the 19/20 and 20/21 school years. We sincerely hope that this will at least help a little as we move through these uncertain times together.

The SEN Team will be sending this information out via snail mail on MISEN letterhead (and attaching/returning any checks they may have already received for 19/20).
Exciting Update about MICIP Testing
MICIP is pleased to announce that the first testing session was a success! Fifty-two testing partners from ISDs and local districts began testing the MICIP platform ( see map for testing partner locations ).
Users of the system will follow the same process that testers followed: they crafted data stories from a data set, used a root cause analysis tool, and summarized the findings with a challenge statement.

One tester commented,
“I think it is a great start, and it follows through on all of the promises and examples that have been shown around the state so far.”

Reports and data from MiSchoolData are also used in MICIP.

Another tester noted,
“This was straightforward, and having the familiarity of [the] MiSchoolData chart is nice.”

Overall, testers rated their first encounter with the MICIP platform as a 4.1 out of 5.0!
MAISA would like to thank all of our ISDs for leading the design, development, hosting, integration, and testing work to make MICIP a statewide collaborative success!
To sign up for the MICIP Continuous Newsletter, click here
Free COVID-19 Testing for Employees
From the Governor's Office:
As businesses begin to reopen, employees are encouraged to get a COVID-19 test if they are at risk of exposure. This includes employees who are in contact with the public or work in industries that have seen outbreaks even if the employee does not have symptoms . Increased testing will help determine where the virus is so we can stop it before it spreads and safely re-engage the economy.

Testing is NOT required for employees to return to work. Testing WILL help us keep workplaces safer by stopping the spread. Our goal is to test 30,000 people per day. Please help us meet this goal by encouraging your employees to get tested.

Encourage your employees/members to get tested at no cost today.

Read the full memo here .
MAISA Board & General Membership
Meeting Schedule
The MAISA Operations Office has compiled the following schedule of upcoming MAISA Board and General Membership meetings. Each meeting has a clickable Zoom link, however, we will continue to send an email the day before the meeting with additional connection options, such as call-in numbers.


If at any point the membership feels that the remote general membership meetings are too frequent or are no longer relevant, please email us and we will revise the schedule. In addition, we have presumed these meetings will be held remotely until further notice. If the Governor's office decides that in-person meetings no longer cause a health concern, we will update this schedule to include regular face to face meetings/conferences.